Dreams (Poetry from my youth)

I discovered this over the weekend.  I do not know when I had written it, as there is no date on it.  It’s one of the rare first poems I ever wrote during high school.  Unedited & raw, here it is.  Tell me your thoughts.

Dreams

Barreling ahead, rocketing at full steam
My destination remains unknown
The seas I traverse, uncharted
And I the seasick traveler await knowledge
That unveiled should reveal a truth

So paradoxical to my very being
A truth that now makes me sick
As I careen out of control towards it
The journey choppy, the waters foamy
The discord evident in the crashing of the skies

Hanging tight to the sail, the white linen
Stark against the dark sky; I wait.
Praying, the words falling from my lips
Spoken with whispered fervency
My mantra in the darkest hour

“O pray for me all who look upon me,
That you may see this lost soul.
Guide me from this darkness,
That I may know sunshine again.
Pray for me, who needs strength.”

Crashing around me chaos ensues
My ship falters, wood splinters
The burden too great,
And fear sinks in while the tendrils of water
Reaching, pull me further below

When all around me the soft voice whispers
“Let go”
Intoned on the winds softly
Am I dead?
Let go…So insistent, so calming,

I must let go
So closing my eyes I do;
So I sank with no pain
Deeper and deeper into the depths of a void
Until finally

I rest comfortably among my linens
Transported back to my bed
Sitting, shaking the sleep from me
Stumbling upon reality
I see the paper on the spread

Written in elegant script
The parchment nearly as old as time itself
These small words; with the force of a brick
Startle me into awareness
The truth, the paradox revealed.

“You must let go…to be free”

©SKW