ROSE OF THE IMPOSSIBLE (photo) & ON ICE (tanka dream series) by Roswila

ON ICE

my brother enters
the doorway and stands stock still
limned by back light
he holds a huge block of ice
firmly against his chest

even as I dream,
possible meanings for this
image start rising:
freezing his wild emotions?
showing me the way to do so?

a childhood memory
enters the dream: a wooden thunk
as the ice man
drops a block on our porch
for the kitchen ice box

I wake thinking of
the “The Iceman Cometh”*
and of changes
denied, as the world constantly
melts away around us


[four tanka on a dream of 7-14-12. *The reference at the end to Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh” may be unsatisfying for anyone not familiar with the play. I find this sometimes when a poet quotes lines in another language with no translation, and context isn't clear enough to make the foreign language lines work for me. However, I’m leaving this reference in as just the title itself really fits the dream/ku. By the way, I did see this play many, many years ago, and was totally gripped and deeply disturbed by it. Click here to read a Wikipedia plot summary of the play. Photo “Rose of the Impossible” by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, and monoku -- are offered in the spirit of collaboration. I have done my part. Now it’s your turn to jump in and see what comes up for you. I.e., there is no right or wrong way to understand or interpret any of these dream offerings. Even my own understandings of them change over time. And it gives me joy when a reader sees something in any of them that I have not.

For more in-depth exploration:

-- a brief post about both dreamku and my photos THE AREN'TS OF DREAMKU & ACCOMPANYING DIGITAL PHOTOS.

-- detailed three-part post about dreamku: "A DREAMKU PRIMER: Writing Haiku-Like Poems About Your Night Dreams": PART ONE: Introduction & Writing Dreamku as Dream Work; PART TWO: Elements of the Haiku Form Used in Dreamku; and PART THREE: How to Write Dreamku (the second and third parts have some overlap).

-- a brief up-dating post about the three-part "A DREAMKU PRIMER" -- Important Up-date to A DREAMKU PRIMER....".

* * * *

‘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.