INVOLUTION (non-dream poem, & photo by Roswila)

INVOLUTION

The red ball you chased across
the long green lawn of your youth
plunged each time off a cliff
and you blindly after it,
a heap of hieroglyphic bones.

They are knitted now, those bones.
Their fracture lines knotted
into finest filigree.

Their labyrinthine patterns
invade your dreams nightly,
tattoos breathing
on a sailor's impending chest.


[A non-dream based poem that's at least 30 years old; though not dream-based, it does bear witness to my interest in night dreams. Back in my New York city years when I was sharing this at poetry readings there was occasionally a discussion afterwards about "impending" modifying a sailor's chest in the last line. Back then, and many times since, I have reconsidered the use of impending. However, I just can't settle on another word that carries what I hear in this word, the feeling I'm trying to get across. I'd have to use many more words to say it any other way, and then it would become prosey. So I've let it stand all these years as a dream-like image in itself. However on posting this here today, I was a little tempted to get rid of the periods and capitals. But I've decided there's nothing wrong with a poem feeling a little "dated," which is how the periods and capitals effect me after all these years. Lastly, it's astounding to me how true this poem still is for me at that feeling/experiential level. In fact, how much truer it is than I ever imagined when I wrote it over 30 years ago. Of course, that green lawn I call youth has expanded to include a couple more decades of calamities. Photo by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE that in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, that 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. And 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, at the end of the sidebar.

Click here for a more in-depth INTRODUCTION, including links to my THREE PART PRIMER on the dreamku form.

* * * *

‘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 ****

THE TAPESTRY (photo) & AWAITING THE HEIR (dreamku series) by Roswila)

AWAITING THE HEIR

the dark furred dog-wolf
insinuates itself
into the Estate grounds
sugar wouldn’t melt in its mouth
as it wanders and schemes

the dog-wolf’s target
will be arriving quite soon:
the Estate’s young heir

padding silently
to the front gate it’s followed
by a small white horse
they hide in bushes, the canine
blends in, the horse not so much

the horse-now-a-cat
more intrigued by the luggage
piled in the bushes
bats at a round white hat box
trying to hook it with its claws

just as it succeeds
a voice comes out of nowhere
saying “I...see...you...”
the cat spikes a four-point freak out
straight up into the air

it streaks off a white blur the bushes slowly settle


[a tanka, dreamku, three tanka, and a monoku on a dream of 1-17-12. Not very poetic but it sure was fun to write. As I’ve said before here, I really like how trying to stay within the various parameters of these small poetry forms helps winnow away considerable chaff from my dream recall. But what struck me even more while drafting this series was the issue of describing unusual things and events. Things and events that weren’t at all odd in the dream experience itself, but would be in waking life. Given that poetry -- including dream poetry -- is largely about experience, as opposed to understanding, I try to keep descriptive explanations brief. Otherwise the reader is dropped in and out of the feeling/ experiential tone of the dream/ poem. The first challenge here is that dog-wolf. To describe it even as much as that draws attention to it as “something strange.” A judgment that did not exist in the dream. But there’s nothing for it in this poem but to say it was a dog-wolf because that is what it was in the dream. Totally unremarkably so, but it was both. Second and bigger challenge is that horse-now-a-cat. It was clearly a small white horse at first. Then just as clearly, once in the bushes, a cat. No process of morphing one into the other. Just a horse there, a cat here; with no notice made in the dream that anything had changed. But to say anything more than “horse-now-a-cat” would draw way too much attention to this switch. A switch that went totally unnoticed in the dream itself. Of course, “bare bones” descriptions of strange dream contents like those I’ve chosen in this dreamku, may be no less confusing to a reader than lengthier ones. But at least a reader is immediately back in the dream scene, should they chose to continue reading. Hm, just trying to express this challenge that dreams present on occasion tells me about an underlying aim I’ve not been fully aware of when writing dreamku. More and more, it seems, I’m trying to get across at least some small portion of the dream as I well as I can recall experiencing it. With as little of my waking reactions or interpretations as possible. For me, there’s always been a complicated relationship between the dream content and the craft of writing. Between the dream feelings and experiences, and the requirements of the poetry forms and my own desire to seek meaning. Between the desire to simply “go with,” and the urge to shape and understand. I won’t even go into what happens when I seek metaphors as a way of getting across something about a dream experience. That’s like dreaming about a dream. Photo "Tapestry" by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE that in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, that 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. And 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, at the end of the sidebar.

Click here for a more in-depth INTRODUCTION, including links to my THREE PART PRIMER on the dreamku form.

* * * *

‘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 ****

THE UNBUILT TEMPLE (dreamku & a photo by Roswila)

THE UNBUILT TEMPLE

our teacher gives us
each a painting of our own myth,
our unique story,
the promise we embody
more and more fully

mine spreads before me
the sight stunning all breath
from my body:
on a mountain road thousands
make pilgrimage upward

two small boxed gifts left
behind in the far lower right
of this living view
one clearly labeled romance
the other, wealth

through the painting’s twilight
I see many pilgrims carry lit
torches up the path
no one soul owning a light but
passing it on to another

so many pilgrims
pack this purposeful path
they sway as if one
beneath mountains silhouetted
in sunlight’s fading edges

these souls, unknowing,
complete the very temple
they seek together,
the unbuilt temple shining
from every brush stroke


[six tanka on a dream of 1-15-12. Photo “Stairway to the Moon” by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE that in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, that 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. And 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, at the end of the sidebar.

Click here for a more in-depth INTRODUCTION, including links to my THREE PART PRIMER on the dreamku form.

* * * *

‘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 ****