The Nearly Poems

I hear poems that pass in the night
tight unfinished lines with agonised rhymes
brave couplets that struggle and fight
hugging horizons over oceans of words
while loose titles slip out of sight

Ideas rear up from the subconscious mind
to fall lost overboard by dawn
The almost remembered great stories untold
perched high on life's clifftop crumble of stones
inscriptions faded and worn

So near yet so far I hear them retreat
from their dream to be free of thought's cage
vainglorious lines ever read and re-read
not my half asleep jumble of poor might have beens
who'll never set foot on a page