DREAM-BASED TANKA

wild night mare ride
as galaxies unwind
in a cavernous fall

sunrise
the hitching post

I came across this dream-inspired tanka in organizing my computer writing files. I wrote it back in 1999 and I'd completely forgotten about it. Synchronistically, it reflects how I've been feeling now as the last 18 days I have left here in New York before I move to California wind down. That is, I'm on a night mare (I deliberately type that as two words, by the way) ride and holding on for sunrise to come once I'm in California.

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‘til next time, keep dreaming,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****My other blogs ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL and ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT.

HAIBUN (sort of): Reponse to One Deep Breath Prompt of 1-13-08

THE DREAM TREE

I have no roots. No stories
of the Old World from the Polish
grandmother who scrubbed floors
to feed and educate her daughter,
her history held in a proud
compensating silence.

I have no roots but those I steal.
No cradling web of stories about
the mother dead as I turned ten,
my family's silence more final
than her dying.

I have no roots but those I steal
in dreams of the Irish father
and grandmother, the grandfather
and great-grandparents, who struggled
in vaudeville and commerce,
the Great Depression and two World Wars,
yet dropped only the rare fact
in the same few oft repeated stories,
leaving me to milk my dark intuitions
for sustenance.

I have no roots but those I steal
in dreams from trees:
my father, doubly transformed
by death and dream, guides me
to a clearing in the wood
where grows an enormous
softly glowing tree, at which
he gestures saying "Look to your Mother"

I breathe gratefully
of timeless silence
the heart of these woods

The prompt this week at One Deep Breath is "to write a haiku series (or haibun) which tells a story from childhood." Please forgive the shortcut I've taken. I have barely three weeks left before my move to California and I am rapidly approaching "non compos mentis," as well. :-) But I am finding sticking to some familiar routines -- such as doing an ODB prompt post -- helps me keep somewhat grounded. So I took a short cut with an old dream-based story-of-my-life poem turning the ending image into a haiku. The result is a semi-haibun, I guess.

You can, as always, visit One Deep Breath (link above), and check out the comments for others' wonderful and varied responses to this prompt.

* * * *

‘til next time, keep dreaming,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****My other blogs ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL and ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT.