I Have A Dream - POEMS

Hello, thank you everyone for participating. Here are the poems I received. I’ll comeback on September 5 to announce the winner.

Title: I Have A Dream

To be seen through,
clearly and concisely,
understood,
undeniably.

The transparency of my heart,
the pure beauty on display.
Embracing my personality,
being the light within the day.

My intentions recognized,
beholding my freedom within.
The radiance projecting out,
it glitters on my skin.

My shyness to dissolve.
My voice ringing like a bell
when I sing intricate melodies
the magic requires no spell.

I have a dream to be a fascination,
quietly loved by a someone.
To be the one to pull the heart-strings,
so we both may be undone.

I long to be accepted,
to be treated like a treasure.
I have a dream to be loved
without giving a grand gesture.

When they look at me they are overcome
with gratitude and desire.
I can be the spark in the dryness
that ignites their inner fire.

I long to star inside his dream,
while he slumbers in space’s canopy.
As we’re racing through the stars and dust
breaking Earth’s conditioned insanity.

I have a dream of reciprocity,
I want the real me to be known.
I have a dream to be loved for me, as is,
so I don’t ever feel alone.

—-

Title: Dreaming

So many dreams I have had
so many will-o-the-wisps
fog in the marsh,
clouds in the canyons.

Love, happiness, children, adventure
some dreams come true in time
but you’re no longer the dreamer
each dream ends with awakening.

I dreamed of travel to new places
and found myself in each new land
much I thought I’d be changed
yet subtly I was without even seeing.

I dreamed of falling deeply in love
devoting my life to The One
who’d capture my heart -
make me want to be by her always.

I dreamed of children to raise
without the mistakes of my parents
who would be safe and openhearted
and look always to me for guidance.

I dreamed of growing wise and old
with deeper understanding of my self
and of the cosmos - fit the pieces
like the puzzles I loved dearly.

Who would not dream of these
such are the stuff that dreams
are always made of - to be the
hero in your own life - for real.

Yet the dreamer can never be
the person who fulfils the dream
for in doing so you awaken,
must accept let-down reality.

Nothing lasts for long
all is caprice and whirled away
like straw in a dust-devil
minute nothings without a trace.

Lest we succumb to nihilism
let us recall the instant
each dream began
the magic
hope.

So
if I wish
for anything
it would be to never
stop dreaming forever more.

LMC 12 August 2025

—-

Title: A Plea to the Deceitful Stars

Is it a crime to love so deep,
That even angels wake and weep?
Yet sorrow answers, sharp and near,
Its breath, a blade I nightly hear.

My thoughts, like birds, take flight, then fall,
To strike against fate’s iron wall.
No harbor left where peace may stay,
Only the tide that pulls away.

This heart is ready though it bleeds
To meet the one my soul still needs.
Whoever’s meant to be my own,
I’ll treasure him as I have shown.

I mask my wounds, but shadows know,
They trail my heart where’er I go.
Why must your wrath be fixed on me,
O twisted hand of destiny?
Is there no right for one who prays,
To taste the dawn of gentler days?

My mind takes flight in restless streams,
Then shakes away unfinished dreams.
With nothing left to hold or bind,
No peace, no ease, no rest to find.

My heart stands ready, though it bleeds,
For love to come and meet my needs.
Whoever’s meant to be my own,
I’ll treasure him as I have shown.

Hear my dreams, hear me cry,
Cast to the cold and merciless sky.
With trembling hands and salt stained eyes,
I beg, I plead, I agonize
Withhold not the treasure my soul has sought,
The dream long woven in threads of thought

O faithless stars, must you conspire,
To quench my heart’s most fragile fire?
If love exists, then let it be mine,
Before this soul forgets to shine.

—-

Title: A Priori

Lately, I have been remembering
so much of my younger years,
memories unfurling and dragging me
to the soft cadence of those tender days—
glutinous rice, sinigang in guava,
the incoming footsteps of my Mother,
and the way I hurry to make my bed.

It's hard for me to cross a busy street,
but this isn't about that.
I've read so much about Carthage
that it has been stuck in my head
for a month and 2 weeks now—
its lost glory and impermanence,
a ruin echoing my own.

Do you also feel it?
The nostalgia and pain
exclusive only to the rain of Manila—
the scent of wet earth
and the stings of summer.

In the cracked pavements
of this haunting city,
dandelions still grow.

I can't cross this crowded street,
stalled at its cruel edge,
but there you are on the other side—
the second-coming
of my youthful dreams—
reborn yet unreachable.

Yes, this isn't about that,
but I can never reach you.

You are the spaces I can never close.

——

Title: Dream of Fire

Lo, I am a dreamer,
and for this cause I wander alone
through this forsaken wilderness of God.

The word dreaming opened the gate;
and lo, they set before me a marble castle.
Yet they knew me not,
for I am no king,
but a worshiper only,
a keeper of flame
in the holy fire-temple of Zaratustra.

They spake not the truth unto thee:
that reality is but another dream,
and every dream, verily,
its own reality.

Behold, my dream is fire:
it runneth swift through all thy candles,
devouring the works of thine hands,
and all that boweth down unto flame.

For the dream of the pure is fire,
the crucible and the cleansing,
the alloy and the judgment,
the measure of that eternal gold
which burneth in the secret heart of all.