INVOLUTION (non-dream poem, & photo by Roswila)
INVOLUTION
The red ball you chased across
the long green lawn of your youth
plunged each time off a cliff
and you blindly after it,
a heap of hieroglyphic bones.
They are knitted now, those bones.
Their fracture lines knotted
into finest filigree.
Their labyrinthine patterns
invade your dreams nightly,
tattoos breathing
on a sailor's impending chest.
[A non-dream based poem that's at least 30 years old; though not dream-based, it does bear witness to my interest in night dreams. Back in my New York city years when I was sharing this at poetry readings there was occasionally a discussion afterwards about "impending" modifying a sailor's chest in the last line. Back then, and many times since, I have reconsidered the use of impending. However, I just can't settle on another word that carries what I hear in this word, the feeling I'm trying to get across. I'd have to use many more words to say it any other way, and then it would become prosey. So I've let it stand all these years as a dream-like image in itself. However on posting this here today, I was a little tempted to get rid of the periods and capitals. But I've decided there's nothing wrong with a poem feeling a little "dated," which is how the periods and capitals effect me after all these years. Lastly, it's astounding to me how true this poem still is for me at that feeling/experiential level. In fact, how much truer it is than I ever imagined when I wrote it over 30 years ago. Of course, that green lawn I call youth has expanded to include a couple more decades of calamities. 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 red ball you chased across
the long green lawn of your youth
plunged each time off a cliff
and you blindly after it,
a heap of hieroglyphic bones.
They are knitted now, those bones.
Their fracture lines knotted
into finest filigree.
Their labyrinthine patterns
invade your dreams nightly,
tattoos breathing
on a sailor's impending chest.
[A non-dream based poem that's at least 30 years old; though not dream-based, it does bear witness to my interest in night dreams. Back in my New York city years when I was sharing this at poetry readings there was occasionally a discussion afterwards about "impending" modifying a sailor's chest in the last line. Back then, and many times since, I have reconsidered the use of impending. However, I just can't settle on another word that carries what I hear in this word, the feeling I'm trying to get across. I'd have to use many more words to say it any other way, and then it would become prosey. So I've let it stand all these years as a dream-like image in itself. However on posting this here today, I was a little tempted to get rid of the periods and capitals. But I've decided there's nothing wrong with a poem feeling a little "dated," which is how the periods and capitals effect me after all these years. Lastly, it's astounding to me how true this poem still is for me at that feeling/experiential level. In fact, how much truer it is than I ever imagined when I wrote it over 30 years ago. Of course, that green lawn I call youth has expanded to include a couple more decades of calamities. Photo by Roswila]
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, including links to my THREE PART PRIMER on the dreamku form.
* * * *
‘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 ****
posted by Roswila @ 10:37 AM
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