"Dreams" by Mark Mycroft

I enjoyed reading Mark's poem. It describes the elusive nature of dreams, and how they can both delight and haunt us. In the end, Mark says that he holds the dreams "close, / so as not to dream of yesterday." Although I pretty much followed along up to this point, I am confised about what the final line means. I like how the poem itself seems to be difficult to get a firm grasp of--that, like dreams, the poem seems to be its own entity which doesn't care if you get it or not. So, I think the style of the poem fits the subject matter.

My favorite line is in the third stanza: "dancing through the maze of my thoughts." I think I like this line because it is beautiful and whimsical, much like dreams enivitably are. Because I think this is such an effective line, I would like to see more like it. For example, rather than saying "Tomorrow seems to never come," why not say something more (for lack of a better word) dreamy. I also think that adding some form of imagery would help bring the reader in. The poem is very abstract, which fits with the idea of "dreams" but, I think some concrete detail (like the dancing through the maze) would help pull the reader in. There are a few lines that I thought were a bit confusing. The first example of this is the second line of the poem, "when only you're going to dream." I think the wording of this line makes it difficult to completely understand. I was also confused by the line, "dreams that I chase while they chase me." I think that in order for this symbol/image to be effective, it should either be rephrased or built upon. I think this is a really good start for a poem, but I'd be interested in seeing another draft.