A THEME RUNS THROUGH (four dreamku and one photo by Roswila)

A THEME RUNS THROUGH
(four dreams, over two months time)


A TOUCHING STORY

flat black dots cover
all five finger prints of the hand
one cannot tell who
lives behind denial in
this manicured presentation


[tanka on a dream of 11-3-11]




HOW TO BE A CON ARTIST

a con can be noticed
when the second stage develops
though marks never do,
even once the third stage gels
there’s small chance of outing

if stuck in stage three
one tactic to advance is to
out the con one’s self:
pronounce “It’s a Con!” in surprise
and marks will leap to deny this

the fourth stage completes
the hard foundational work
the rest is gravy
only one challenge left
the conscience of the conner


[three tanka on a dream of 11-4-11]




HER PENCHANT

my pen pal’s penchant:
notes scribbled all over large
ceramic figurines

I wrap one to send
back to her, my objections
written across it –
not without humor but asking
why her postal graffiti

an awkward homing pigeon
this black and white striped elephant


[dreamku series on a dream of 12-29-11]




FAMILY HEAD

the long-time matriarch
of a big crime family
must kill a snitch
she paces a dining room
muttering as she waits

over and over
“I really don’t want to do this”
escapes from her lips
the choice clear: her family or
this disturbing resistance


[two tanka on a dream of 12-30-11. About this dream immediately above: it amazes me sometimes how different the type of metaphor in my dreams can be from that in my conscious writing. I.e., I’d never have consciously chosen a matriarch/mob/murder setting to carry the multivalent message of this dream. If it had even occurred to me at all I’d have rejected it as hyperbolic. But nevertheless, it works for me in this dream. All too well. And as often happens, in choosing that title another angle on understanding came up. It also now hits me that the hyperbole itself was a really good attention getter! Which may be the purpose when over-the-top images show up in my dreams. (Over-the-top to me, that is. Some dreams I share here others consider over-stated, even nightmares, but I don’t. So it’s all relevant to what moves, or doesn’t move the dreamer.) The thread I believe connecting all four dreams above is communication or lack thereof, and control or ease between the various layers of one’s self. And this last one, for all it’s hyperbole, appears to be a little step ahead and gives me great hope. Some ancient (matriarchal), controlling aspect of self (note that lower case “s,” as in the little self) is beginning to resist the entrenched imperatives she’s lived by up til now. Photo "The Moon Within" 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 ****