Professional Dreamers (Gemma White)

10

professional dreamers do not show
their ideas to just anyone no

professional dreamers do not boast
of their plans to unbelievers

professional dreamers put on their
black skirts and suits

every morning is a chance  
to make a vision reality

every morning a chance
to do their work in confidence

they could be artists
they could be ordinary folks

with a job to do  
in their cosmic costumes

they could be on the train
or behind you in line

professional dreamers do not show
you who they are

chameleons with serious
metaphysical intent

professional dreams disappear at will
and only later do you see

what they’ve left behind


26

i have a condition
an indoctrination
that gives me knowledge about the world
some people call it an illness

i have seen things no-one else has seen
heard things that “are not there”
my life has been both poorer
& richer for it

at the beginning it was all fear
but sometimes there is ecstasy
a bold feeling of power
a united expression of love

sometimes i cry
& still believe the stories in my head
these days i try not to get tricked
being sane is more boring but it is also

more comforting & now
i look for magic in the morning commute 
i take my pills night & day 
& the secret knowledge is kept at bay


48

my madness is a burnt orange fox
most of the time it’s contained to its burrow

occasionally it draws a streak across life —
like a mandarin cloud its hues echo

 


Find out who the illusive Gemma White is by signing up to her newsletter. That way we get to have a conversation. And who doesn’t like that? Oh, and there will be sneak peeks of poetry too!