SINGING FOR THE SUN (photo) & A DREAM IN TWO ACTS (dreamku series)

A DREAM IN TWO ACTS

I The Call

oh...my...heavens!
where’s my little red purse,
as I rush back in
to the restaurant I recall
other dreams of losing my bag

and as in those dreams
I cannot find it anywhere –
again, just as in
the older dreams I try to will
it firmly back into being

but I utterly fail
unlike those other lost purses
in countless scenarios
this little red bag will not
manifest itself

my eyes see my hands enclose emptiness only


II The Response

we will chant the song
for our congregation
in celebration –
I practice alone in a
small shadowy church alcove

the bell-like overtones
that rise completely surprise me
and brighten the air
I’ve never chanted such clear
and ethereal tones before

the choir director
calls us to the altar steps –
we’re to offer
healing by focusing our
overtones toward those who seek it

we fill the steps –
chanters and seekers alike
alight with awe


[dreamku series in two parts on one dream of 2-20-12. The references in “Act I” are to the many actual dreams going back decades in which I lose my purse and then re-manifest it by will alone. And I did actually recall having those older dreams while dreaming “Act I.” Photo “Singing for the Sun” by Roswila. And a P.S. to my previous post about computer woes. It’s all but definite it’s my old computer that’s the problem. I probably need either more RAM or an up-dated OS, or both. Just a bit more research to do before I make up my mind whether to spend money on this old computer, or bite the bullet and get a new one.]

PLEASE NOTE that I never have nor do I now lay claim to having been the first to suggest writing about our dreams in the haiku form. In fact, the haijin (Haiku Masters of centuries ago) sometimes wrote haiku on dreams. But even more importantly, what I have been developing for several years now on this blog is not even truly haiku or tanka or monoku. The ways in which I have been using and experimenting with these forms makes the results more akin to kissing cousins of these small Eastern poetry forms. Therefore, I mostly use the term "dreamku" to distinguish what I do from those traditional forms. Click here for a more in-depth INTRODUCTION than follows below, including links to my THREE PART PRIMER on the basic (most haiku-like) dreamku form.

Also, 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.

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 in the sidebar.

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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 ****