IN A BLINK (photo) & THERE'S ALWAYS A CATCH (dreamku) by Roswila

THERE’S ALWAYS A CATCH

I don’t remember
where I got this turquoise ring
but I’ve worn it all
the time for ages, despite the
small break in the silver setting

today, the break’s edge
catches on my skirt and pulls
completely open
I’m so tired of what I love
ultimately falling apart

maybe it isn’t
even a real turquoise stone …
sigh … sour grapes won’t help


[two tanka and a dreamku on a dream of 5-16-12. I googled for meanings of the turguoise gem stone. Most of what came up I vaguely recalled from decades back when I was deeply into working with healing stones and even elixirs thereof (singly and in combination). But one suggested meaning I was not only surprised by but think I’d do well to think on: “This is a stone that a person must learn to attune to instead of the stone attuning to the person. It is important that the owner of a Turquoise give it the proper attention.” (from crystal-cure.com) And I hasten to add, although I may make an elixir of turquoise (if I still have a piece, I haven't checked yet), I take this meaning mostly in a metaphoric sense. E.g., what am I taking for granted that needs care? How can I turn my focus more outward? (That second question is a dizzying doozy.) Photo “In A Blink” by Roswila]

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 ****