END OF THE DANCE (photo) & A NOVEL IN MINIATURE (dreamku series) by Roswila

A NOVEL IN MINIATURE


Introduction

the huge photo album
is not static but living:
teen ballerinas
in soft sepia tones work
at the barre on their craft


Chapter 1

my lover talks me
into climbing the steep stairs
to the hideaway
he says I can hold his arm
since I don’t have my cane

as I lean on him
he disappears and it’s
the elegant owner
of the restaurant at my arm
impatiently tugging me up

I know he believes
I don’t really need much help
and maybe I don’t,
at least with quitting this
hard and demanding climb


Chapter 2

well, that was something!
I may have lost my shoulder bag
and all its contents
but I’m independent again
and my planning ahead worked:

sewn into a seam of my blouse
a credit card and some loose cash


Denouement

the ballerinas dance
and sweat, experiment and strike
an occasional stunning
pose as I watch -- so why
do I feel I’ve let us all down?


[dreamku series on a dream of 6-20-12. Photo “End of the Dance” by Roswila]

THE TERM DREAMKU: What I have been posting for several years now on this blog is rarely truly haiku, tanka, or monoku. I use the term "dreamku" to distinguish what I write from these traditional forms. Working to adhere to even some of the parameters of these forms, helps me make choices that relieve my dream recall of a great deal of chatter so that I can get down to some important dream aspects. 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.

DIGITAL PHOTOS: The picture accompanying a dreamku is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse -- similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku). Thus they act like metaphors. I usually choose photos for other kinds of non-dream based poems in the same suggestive, as opposed to illustrative way.

METAPHOR: I occasionally add a metaphor or simile to a dream scenario (i.e. one I did not actually experience in some way in the dream). But I do this sparingly as it can be confusing: did it really look like a hand, say, in the dream, or am I just being poetic to make a conscious point? As these dreamku act as a dream journal, my tendency is to stay as close to the actual dream scenario as possible -- admittedly making for some less "poetic" dreamku. However, the dream scenarios themselves can be understood metaphorically.

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).

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.

* * * *

‘til next time, keep dreaming,






If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's other blogs: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and OPENING TO THE LIGHT.