A MAGIC CARPET RIDE, non-dream based poem by Patricia Kelly (Roswila)

A MAGIC CARPET RIDE


I

Take this ruby beauty hard
peel it, shell it, strip it
of its crystal cage


II

There are rubies in profusion here:
rubies crackling sweetly in the silence beneath words,
rubies in a riot burning briefly underfoot,
maverick rubies melting, then congealing by the stairs,
and hearts of rubies breaching tombs
to breathe in golden air


III

Rubies are in bloom:
rubies which splitting their pods spill slowly out
and nestle by our feet



Patricia Kelly © 1984, © 2011

This was not based on a dream. It was inspired by a vaguely oriental-style carpet with a lot of ruby red color in it that was on the upstairs floor of a restaurant. And the weekly poetry reading (The Scribblers) held there, back in the mid-80s in Manhattan, New York City. I read this poem regularly over subsequent years at that reading and various others I went to around the city. And don't recall it ever being commented on, as some of my other work would be. But it was always a personal favorite. I don't recall what made me think of it after all these years. But now that I've dug it out of my files I find myself wondering if this style of imagistic writing will surface again in my poetry, along with a clear meter (as in the second section). In those years people used to ask if I wrote music. I never have, at least not technically. Over the years I have written some mild melodies (chants actually) in dreams, along with the words to go with them. The photo above is "Welcoming the Rain" by Roswila.

PLEASE NOTE that in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, that the photo accompanying a daily dream poem or non-dream based poem is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse -- similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku). I've also recently realized that although the dreamku (i.e. dream based poems) posted here tend not to have metaphor or simile, the accompanying photos almost always act as such. And to write a metaphor or simile into a dream scenario is something I rarely do. It can be confusing: did it really look like a hand, say, in the dream, or am I just being poetic to make my conscious point? As these dreamku act as a dream journal, my over-riding tendency is to try to stay close to the actual dream scenario itself. Admittedly making for a tendency to less "poetic" dreamku. Then why pay attention to any haiku, tanka, or monoku parameters at all when writing about my dreams? Because I find in even attempting to adhere to them I'm making choices that relieve my dream recall of a great deal of chatter so that I can get down to some important dream aspects. Here's a link to THE AREN'TS OF DREAMKU & ACCOMPANYING PHOTOS in which I go into some of the basic parameters for dreamku and the photos chosen to go with them (and with any non-dream based poems I post here, as well).

The archives in the sidebar hold years of the daily dreamku, tanka, monoku and photo posts I've made, grouped in one post by month. As I no longer post dreamku (or non-dream based poems) strictly daily, each post will appear below and then in the archives by the day on which it was posted.

There are many other sorts of posts here, not all dream-based. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non-dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers than myself), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

Click here for a more in-depth INTRODUCTION.

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‘til next time, keep dreaming,

[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; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and OPENING TO THE LIGHT ****