A Dream Shared Unknowingly

Some Czech Romany refugees arrived in Athlone circa 1999, and told of a dream... They are big believers in the signifigance of dreams...

A dream hirrific of men being killed
Woke the lady though the night
Of men of old with shield and sword
On horseback in a fight
Prehaps a film seen and forgot
Was what brought these dreams
As a stranger in a land as strange
Finding it hard to settle, sleep disturbed
Left the brain within nightmares range...

And so nothing of the dreams was said
And time in time is passed
But the dreams she thought in time would go
They always seemed to last
Though she was settled and all was well
As well as things can be
When you are far from your home
In Ireland as a refugee

One night in a neighbours home while talking
Another neighbour spoke
Of a recurring dream she had over the months
From which she often awoke
And she described in every detail
As our friend sat silent out the story came
The dream in every detail
It seemed it was the same...

And speaking to her husband
They thought it stange and wondered why
And told few they did she dreampt as well
But one day when talking I
Told of the Seiges of Athlone
Of which they had heard not
The site of the fighting and killing
Their camp was on the very spot!!!

Was this in a Romanys dreams
The ghosts of soldiers long dead
Still fighting the Williamite wars
Filling the minds of the living with dread
Or was it the dreams of one unsettled
In a land that was new
We know not which it was
But she and they now think they do

For the dead return in dreams
And grudges do not forgive
And will enter the dreams of those asleep
Who on the site of their death do live
Such it is their belief
And who knows, maybe they are right...
So pay attention when you dream
The dead may speak to you tonight...

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Picture: Athlone refugee centre, scene of some of
the fighting in the Sieges of Athlone in the
Wiliamite Wars 1689-1692
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Reviews

[Emily B]

Some think that ghosts walk where so much violence and chaos happened. I sometimes think the place remembers. I do know that those who died want us to know what happened in these places. They want us to remember and respect what they've done. And once in a while they even let us walk in their footsteps, to feel what it was to march the hill . . .

[O!]

This is so very intriguing.......and I somehow believe in this but dont wanna!! ........ironic right!?...i guess its fear......

ty for sharing this with us.

x,
O!

[Sharon Miller Bolander]

The more I try to understand my own dreams the more confused I become. Your poem and its story is fascinating. Who knows? My mind is open to possibilities I may not be able to comprehend. Sharon

[Clyde McBeth]

Wow, it makes my mind wonder at all the places in the world, all the people living in it... It's really a nifty piece.

[Petrus Romanus]

I can almost hear the pipes calling, Danny Boy! Great spirit - moving language! As a hopeless anglophile, I just love the antiquated prosody and cool alternate 'fpelling' of my name, 'Romanys'! Carry on!

[Wondering Mind]

Thought provoking. Could it be that suffering and bloodshed leaves traces of negative energy which the mind senses?