ON BEING DWARFED (dreamku) & PHOTO by Roswila

ON BEING DWARFED

she barely reaches
the crowded clothing rack with
her old dwarf arms
but she’s quite capable
of cleaning out this closet

she lifts batch after
batch of clothes and other sundries
from this packed storage
it’s well past time to distance
herself from their young owner

this normal sized gal
she’s given so much over to
throughout the years
there are those who’d even say
the youthful lady’s a user

the clothes rack empties
as she continues reaching up
no sadness, just an
easy awareness that she’d
always liked the young woman


[four tanka on a dream of 11-18-11. I know I've sworn off commenting on these dream poems, but this one is so packed I can't resist. There's something in that dwarf image about, well, an over-sized sense of self being deflated (I can't help but recall that Jungian term "inflated persona"). That's always to the good, I'd say. And at the same time, a recognition of capabilities remaining. Then there's the implications for my weight issues and maybe an acceptance (that young woman is the "normal size" I've never really been). Wow, that would be quite something. There's a ton more here in the various implied idiomatic expressions in this dream's images. But the thing that really knocked my socks off as I wrote this dreamku is that there's an affection for that younger, troubled self. This is not an angry parting, not even really a parting. Just a necessary distancing with affection. Wow, again. May it be so. Photo 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 ****