BREAKTHROUGH (photo) & HOLY HALLELUJAH (dreamku series) by Roswila

HOLY HALLELUJAH

Holy Hallelujah!
how will I ever find my
friends in this crowd
I sit on the City Hall steps
and watch our protest march disperse

ah, there they are, just
a couple of brick steps up
to the rear of me
why aren’t they aware I'm here?
I listen in on their talk

our newest friend,
an energetic young gal,
totally hooks them
with her passionate preaching
about the invasion to come

she emphasizes that
squatting down and shooting straight
is the only way
we’ll be able to repel
the army of space aliens

I’m vaguely hurt that
they still don’t see me at all
and leave them there
I wander the streets noting
the fractious diversity

muggers and militia,
attention grabbers and
those who skirt edges,
wiley hawkers and impulse buyers --
we’re our own invading force

that beautiful old song rises in me
“It’s a broken and a Holy Hallelujah” *


[six tanka with a capping two-liner on a dream of 12-8-12. * That song at the end was Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” However, I mis-dreamed that last line; it’s actually “it’s a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah.” For me that holy aspect has always been implied in the song; the joyous holy that comes through when we are able to fully embrace life’s many losses and contradictions. The riverbed may have been carved from sadness and pain but it can flood with joy. Hm, that image doesn’t really express the experience when I have it. It’s more like an all embracing radiance that comes through my brokenness. It was this that I felt ever so briefly at the end of that dream and which I think kept trying to recover throughout the night. I found myself singing snatches of the song in other dreams that I now do not recall, and whenever I woke. P.S. I believe this dream was initially about psychological projection and especially owning my own (“we’re our own invading force”). But it morphed into something much more encompassing at the end. Photo “Breakthrough” 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.

Further, haiku afficianado and translator David Gerard said in a recent post: “One of the most important aspects of haiku is that much is left ambiguous, unspoken, undefined. Ludmila Balabanova writes, ‘Haiku isn't a perception shared by the author, but an invitation to the reader to achieve his own enlightenment.’” To that I add that the same might be said of all the dreamku, and dream-based tanka, two-liners, and monoku on this blog.

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 TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.