ALL DAILY DREAMKU, TANKA, & PHOTOS POSTED IN JUNE 2011 by Roswila
Since I’m gearing up for my big photo exhibit on July 24th, I’ve had a rather computer-heavy month. Going through thousands of photos to select the “best,” and then figure out how to organize them has been a challenge to put it mildly. Especially as I can’t help re-editing many as I go along. At any rate, I have the sense my poor psyche is even more than usually over-loaded with images, and the memories and emotions they evoke. Here’s a sample post reflecting this:
June 21, 2011
telling him about
Fibber McGee’s closet –
laughter usurps speech
tumbling from my crowded
psyche into the dream
If you’re not familiar with Fibber McGee, see comments beneath the post itself below.
May you all have laughter tumble into your lives.
[PLEASE NOTE that in most browsers you can click on the image for a larger version.]
June 1, 2011
NO/THING
the teacher’s challenge:
to make sense of all the words –
each in our own way
quickly realizes the words
are notes in the music scale
I can’t read music
so write the pitches I hear
up and down on the page
in my own abstract symbols
as the words rise and fall
each symbol winds up
relative to the others
and to the whole
the last lyrical phrasing:
NO THING STAYS THE SAME
[three tanka on a dream of 5-31-11. I’ve actually done something very much like this a couple times when trying to make written notes of tunes I’d composed in my sleep many years ago. Placing dots up and down across the page relative to each other in an approximation of their pitch relationship. (I really don’t read music.) And it worked! I don’t imagine it could work for an intricate melody. The two dream tunes were only short simple chants (that I still occasionally share in poetry readings). Image by Roswila (color computer manipulated)]
June 2, 2011
THE ACORN
one squirrel chases
another across my bare belly
leaving it tender
also left behind in their wake
a double-headed acorn
[tanka on a dream of 6-1-11. Image by Roswila]
June 3, 2011
HERE WE GO AGAIN
I’ve understood their
philosophy from its beginning
they know I don’t like it
the only question now:
why this job offer?
* * * * * * * *
butter wouldn’t melt
in his mouth as he follows
and gooses me
the only question now:
annoying or turn-on?
[a tanka each on two dream fragments on 6-2-11. Image by Roswila]
June 4, 2011
WHAT CAN I DO
long-time women friends
in her dancercise class
I can’t manage much
but do what I can to keep up
and be part of the effort
as the class ends I
leave her pristine home studio
for her library
I realize the dogs will get out
into her dance space
I quickly slide shut
the windowed door and notice
it’s off the track
every door on the wall
slides but flaps out of place
what can I do dog claws will scratch the dance floor
[three tanka and a monoku on a dream of 6-3-11. Image: possible High Priestess in the Found Tarot, by Roswila]
June 5, 2011
IF ONLY
my hard of hearing
very old woman friend
just had a baby
she’s now due any day
to birth another one
she asks me if I’ll
stay with her through labor
also inquiring
if I think she should go
to the hospital this time
“If only because
of your age” I reply –
have I offended her?
[two tanka and a dreamku on a dream of 6-4-11. Image by Roswila]
June 6, 2011
BOXED IN
a stranger to all
I go to the dance party
watching’s intriguing
their contest winner
photo is displayed full-size
a tall man-woman
with a plastic bag
over her head a woman
dances around
her three children follow her
all wearing bags on their heads
barely toddler age
her youngest goes to a corner
and cries in a box
that it hasn’t suffocated
is rather miraculous
[two dreamku and two tanka on a dream of 6-6-11. Digital Photo Image: “Boxed In” by Roswila]
June 7, 2011
IN OUR HANDS
what is this?
this thing I can feel in the air
but can’t see at all
my friends and I start
to explore its upright
cylindrical shape
I decide to keep the source
of my giggles to myself
[a dreamku and a tanka on a dream of 6-6-11. Image by Roswila]
June 8, 2011
OVERWHELMING
we’re in it together
but is this where we’re headed
cafeteria
the server’s a friendly
Ernest Borgnine, and the choices
of food overwhelming
he piles my plate way too full
of my tentative pick
the walk home why did I leave my purse with Ernest
[a dreamku, tanka, and a monoku on a dream of 6-7-11. Image "Candied Orange" by Roswila]
June 9, 2011
dreams of her, then them,
then him, but ultimately
what does it matter –
I fall back to sleep and trim
tall cactus-hedges in the rain
[a tanka on the dreams of 6-8-11. The “hedges” put me in mind of this old haiku from 2006 (i.e., not a dreamku but a waking experience back when I lived in New York city):
a neighbor's smile
where high hedges used to be
winter sunlight
Image by Roswila]
June 10, 2011
third morning running
she wakes up singing the jingle
“Feed the Senses!”
[dreamku on morning dreams of 6-8, 9, & 10-11. That last line is from a Friskies cat food jingle. And it’s stuck in whatever part of my brain wakes up first, for sure! Image by Roswila, from January 2010 -- my first and to date only willfull creation of a still-life for photographing; as I look at it now a year and a half later, I think I'd fold that yellow paper on the lower left edge back behind the fuchsia paper]
June 11, 2011
THE TAKE OVER
the other worldly
aliens take over our bodies
we look as always
but definitely do not
act in reasonable ways
one of us appears
to be much more suited
to this take-over --
I’m informed by my inside
alien that this is not true:
aliens don’t distinguish they just take who’s there
[two tanka and monoku on a dream of 6-10-11. Image by Roswila]
June 12, 2011
MOVING DAY
to me there’s clearly
something sleazy about him
hyper fair-haired guy
I keep my distance
as we dismantle the office
a pile of new mail
he demands I hand him
the orange folders off the top
I quickly comply
one in his tight grip
is his medical exam
but the other’s mine
I request it back from him
as it has my blood test results
he won’t let it go
and makes me play a game
to get the results –
I go along to avoid
the fuss I know he’d make
when will he leave – echoing old office
[three dreamku, two tanka, and a monoku on a dream of 6-11-11. Image by Roswila]
June 13, 2011
THE REPLACEMENT
as we board the flight
there’s a hurried replacement
new quartet member
even with the old guy
we weren’t all that good
or experienced
we were and still are a mishmash
of types and skill levels:
two women, two men
we women dressed in black robes
cowls over our heads,
both men nearly naked
and enjoying the exposure
but this new member!
I pray he can’t really be ours
arrogant young bumpkin
[a dreamku, two tanka, and a dreamku on a dream of 6-12-11. Image by Roswila]
June 14, 2011
OVER AND OVER
something in writing
on a lined yellow note pad
that’s all I can grasp
then I sing the lines:
“Oh, the days dwindle down
to a precious few
September, November”
over and over in the night
[a dreamku and tanka on a dream of 6-13-11. Image by Roswila]
June 15, 2011
[The only dream images I have don't entice me to write about them. The above photo is actually the center of a wilting white cactus bloom. Maybe one response to how I'm feeling is to just go on trying to make art out of it, in some way. Image by Roswila]
June 16, 2011
the president’s wife
sits on his desk and flirts
with him as they argue
why are we watching this boring
and endless live feed?
[a tanka on a dream of 6-15-11. Image by Roswila]
June 17, 2011
THE ZOO
every one’s costumed
like a bear in the small town
some wear pointed hats, too,
and stand silhouetted against
the setting sun
all but The Fat Man
who lounges in his new chapeau
and black and white suit
he’s housebound by his size
but doesn’t seem to care
it’s a one note zoo out there – why should he
[two tanka and a monoku on a dream of 6-16-11. Image by Roswila]
June 18, 2011
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
he turns off all of
the internet cafe lights
I turn the only one
I can find, way in the back,
on again – poor lighting at best
* * * * * * * *
my erstwhile friend asks
why I said what they say I did
but I’d said no such thing
her secret go-to pal
appears vaguely amused
by my denial:
what they say I said is just
so much internet flotsam
* * * * * * * *
the mouse cord keeps
getting shorter and shorter
foolishly, I yank at it
of course, it unplugs –
I can’t see well enough
in the dark
to choose which of three ports
it should be attached to
I take a guess – huge photos fill the screen
how annoying! they’re nothing but spam
[three dreamku series on one dream of 6-17-11. Image by Roswila]
June 19, 2011
windows on the world –
the last is edited using
the Six of Disks
[dreamku on a dream fragment of 6-18-11. I did not actually see any particular deck's Six of Disks (Pentacles) in the dream; I just knew that was the see-through picture that had been sort of layered over the window. Here’s two versions of this card. The first is the Six of Disks from The Thoth Tarot:
And here’s the Six of Pentacles from The Rider/Waite/Smith deck:
[Image at the top by Roswila]
June 20, 2011
PLAYING IT OUT
plays about suicide
is that one meant to be funny?
and this one profound?
how many ways it
could all play out – each with
more than one player
front and center
the most elegant by far:
three men dangle from
multi-level cat’s cradles
will they really hang themselves
the old middle man
starts tugging on various strings
is he dead serious
and is this end game truly
the one that ends all games
[two dreamku and two tanka on a dream of 6-19-11. Image by Roswila]
June 21, 2011
telling him about
Fibber McGee’s closet –
laughter usurps speech
tumbling from my crowded
psyche into the dream
[tanka on a dream of 6-20-11. HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER! Maybe summer’s official arrival is why I had a light and funny dream. For anyone who does not know, Fibber McGee and Molly were the lead characters of a hugely popular radio show that aired from 1935 to 1949. There was a running gag about his terribly crowded closet that one opened only at one’s own peril. It even saved them from a burglar once, burying the miscreant under it’s contents until the police arrived. Image “Fibber McGee’s Closet” by Roswila]
June 22, 2011
DINNER DATE
table for four – I take the last seat
leaning over I
whisper gently in her ear:
it’s okay to be
upset with how I talked to you
I’d be upset with me, too
[a monoku and tanka on a dream of 6-21-11. Image by Roswila]
June 23, 2011
ON THE TABLE
the woman and I
arrange miniatures
on a table top:
most, barn yard animals,
some exotic or wild ones
I move a mother
bear and her cub, noting they
belong there, beyond
the enclosing wooden fence
as if just looking in
among the horses,
one small elephant with its
trunk curling downward
I’m happy to spot it
and wonder why it’s so sad
the table’s arranged –
I think to myself: forensic
psychoanalysis
[three tanka and a dreamku on a dream of 6-22-11. Image by Roswila]
June 24, 2011
she may have to do
those things now whether she
wishes to or not
her word is her word, this woman
called Buffalo Heart
[a tanka on a dream of 6-23-11. Image computer manipulated, by Roswila]
June 25, 2011
NO DOGS ALLOWED
my friend proudly shows
me her indoor dog run
she starts herding her
many dogs into it with
gentle shooing motions
as some keep trying
to slip out again I hear
a man’s over-voice:
“When I had several ‘No’ dogs
I had much more space for them”
her largest dog reaches
for the wall thermostat
she lifts his paw off it
[two tanka and a dreamku on a dream of 6-24-11. Image by Roswila]
June 26, 2011
CARNIVAL SUNSET
two women muggers
steal my full shoulder bag
empty carnival
since I’ve seen their faces
one declares I must be killed –
the other disagrees,
somehow I know she thinks
losing my purse is bad enough
she quickly creates
a noisy diversion –
I make my escape
through long echoing hallways
do I need to hide?
[a dreamku and two tanka on a dream of 6-25-11. Image above by Roswila]
June 27, 2011
THE WILD STAR
she wakes me putting
a large book under my nose
an anthology
of poems, is it? I can’t tell
but I really like the cover
vaguely familiar
dark men on horseback ride across
a windy plain
the portentous title hovers:
The Wild Star Becomes the Law
[two tanka on a dream of 6-26-11. Image by Roswila]
June 28, 2011
THE FILTER
they frown upon
the filter I want to try
with my photos
I expect they’ll ban it but
use it on two anyway
I like the scrambling
effect it has, one a close up
and one a landscape –
to my delighted surprise
they approve the filter
[two tanka on a dream of 6-27-11. Image by Roswila]
June 29, 2011
she scurries into
a bathroom stall as I yell
at her “Drop dead!”
why does she still get to me,
he’s the on-going liar
[a tanka on a dream of 6-28-11. Image by Roswila]
June 30, 2011
my father tells me
to hold my long braid in my teeth
I quickly comply
what is he up to?
“In my end is my beginning”
runs through my mind –
of course, the reverse is also
true for an ouroborous
[a dreamku and tanka on a dream of 6-29-11. Image "Four Generations": clearly not taken by Roswila, as I'm that babe in my father's arms; that's my great-grandmother on the left, and grandmother on the right; and I note -- yet again -- that my end is in one way in my beginning as I could as easily see that scenery here in California (after a 60 year sojourn in New York city), as in Florida where I was born and the photo taken]
‘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 and ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT, and Yahoo DREAMJIN: Group for Dreamku – Haiku-Like Dream Poems ****