Dreamlands

I used to spend my dreams
     the ones you wake remembering
being pursued relentlessly
by an unknown enemy
like Buchan’s hero in The 39 Steps
and in The Hero’s Journey
just when you think you’re in the clear
     the antagonist is once more there

More often, recently
I find myself lost
     in a big city I should know
flavour of London perhaps
but away from shiny landmarks
yet central – not suburbs
busily, chaotically urban
I search for the familiar
     always nearing – never succeeding

Occasionally, I am rehashing
past jobs – of which I’ve had many
seeking an elusive
key to success
and waking then, I feel
dreams might indeed
be the arena in which
our unconscious attempts
to sort the business of the day

Rarely, too, I find myself
in a dwelling I used nearly to know
the character of rooms
I used to share with friends
and yet they’re not quite right
     somehow…
a building sprawling
through the dream without end
and I wake with only the feeling of
a place once known…

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

Image by Midjourney

Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Grace in Poetics, invites us to write about Dreams…

18 thoughts on “Dreamlands

  • August 7, 2024 at 8:49 am
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    Dreams suit themselves in motifs, don’t they! I go back to college or play in bands or work old jobs, many times in the revenant sense of reliving the past with the dead. My history as the dream’s chosen rhetorical style, speaking its mysteries through that mask. Great rumination here.

    Reply
    • August 7, 2024 at 10:35 am
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      Thanks, Brendan

      Reply
  • August 7, 2024 at 11:02 am
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    Those kinds of dreams are familiar, Andrew, especially the ones where you’re lost in a big city – and it never looks the way you remember it – and past jobs – they keep coming back to haunt me. Dreams are always off-kilter.

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    • August 7, 2024 at 2:04 pm
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      Not exactly nightmares but unsettling, Kim…

      Reply
  • August 7, 2024 at 1:47 pm
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    I know these type of dreams. I often travel in my dreams to other times of my life. I often refer to this as finding pieces of myself. But, the puzzle pieces have taken on new shapes and meanings.

    Being lost somewhere seems to be a re-occurring dream for me. I am usually in the woods walking through a maze of trees.

    I can definitely relate to your dream wanderings. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  • August 7, 2024 at 2:11 pm
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    Seems we are all in the same boat when it comes to dreams Truedessa…

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  • August 7, 2024 at 2:42 pm
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    Yes, you capture that ‘almost’ well. I don’t think the brain makes up images in our dreams. They are all real, but we’ve forgotten them, or have superposed a mistaken memory on them. Dreams are games of spot the memory.

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    • August 8, 2024 at 6:38 am
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      They are made up of real memories, for sure, Jane, but it’s hard to see how that helps sort out the day’s business sometimes…

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  • August 7, 2024 at 9:26 pm
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    Ah dreams. some you remember sone you just have a notion that were dreaming.
    Nice one Frewin

    much♡love

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    • August 8, 2024 at 6:39 am
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      Yes, Gillena, and what is it that determines which you remember and which you don’t – I’m sure I don’t know…
      Thanks for visiting!

      Reply
  • August 8, 2024 at 1:53 am
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    I can relate to those feelings and thoughts as well. The place is familiar yet not really the same. Or recurring dreams of failing and forgetting something. I guess it is all part of our subconscious or deeper part of ourselves. Thanks for joining in.

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    • August 8, 2024 at 6:40 am
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      Thanks, Grace, all part of life’s great mysteries…

      Reply
  • August 8, 2024 at 7:07 pm
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    I resonate so strongly with this one, Andrew! 🩷 Especially;

    “Occasionally, I am rehashing
    past jobs – of which I’ve had many
    seeking an elusive
    key to success
    and waking then, I feel
    dreams might indeed
    be the arena in which
    our unconscious attempts
    to sort the business of the day.”

    Reply
    • August 8, 2024 at 8:46 pm
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      Thank you so much Sanaa, 💜

      Reply
  • August 10, 2024 at 11:35 pm
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    I relate well to this, Andrew. These are the types of dreams I typically have.

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    • August 10, 2024 at 11:39 pm
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      I guess we are all more alike than we imagine, Sara… Thanks for visiting!

      Reply
  • September 19, 2024 at 6:08 pm
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    You’ve put into words that fleeting dream quality of visiting someplace that isn’t quite as you remember it.

    Reply
    • September 25, 2024 at 9:24 pm
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      Thanks, Melissa, I think I covered all the major variations…

      Reply

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