Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. This episode features a poem by Paula Coulahan.
Coulahan is a Language Arts teacher for Rockford Public Schools. She is a part of Moms Demand Action, Teachers for Social Justice and United Against Hate. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Northern Illinois University and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Aurora University. Coulahan and her husband, Mike, have been married for 35 years. They have two adult sons. Coulahan explained the inspiration for her poem “Deep Into This Dream.”
“Deep Into This Dream” is part of a novel I am working on, called Beautiful Words. One of the characters writes this poem for another.
Into the fabric of our lives are woven those rare moments where we are fortunate enough to be inspired by love and moved to share beautiful words. In history, and certainly in the current era, there is so much war, suffering, and hate. But we all know that down deep we are brothers and sisters and that love, whether romantic, platonic, or global, is the one thing we have in common and it triumphs in small ways, as it always has.
For the main characters in my story, it is a romantic and forbidden love. Love can happen at any time and transcend cultures, belief systems, generations. It can change our lives. That is because we are better than hate, division, and chaos. We are the caretakers of each other’s souls.
Here’s her poem “Deep into This Dream.”
Deep into this dream I go, standing in the water
Tide rising and falling around us
You, out of your normal place in my life
Holding me close and whispering
All the beautiful words I want to say, coming forth
Like seagulls flying from a cliff
Never looking down, but only soaring
To places I have never been until now
Because you set my heart on fire, my ship to sail
You bring me to myself and I am happy there
Unable to imagine a world without you
In this place I have come to on an unfamiliar shore
Where there is so much joy
That I cannot breathe it all in
And so it must come out and show
In my face, in my eyes upon you
Though I am trying not to show you
Because I cannot know
If you are in the same dream as me
And if the glow is reflecting between us
If the water is rising and falling on us both
In the quiet of the night in those places we go alone
Taking no one else there for the confession
But ourselves
