Roswila's Dream & Poetry Realm

SEE ALSO: TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT (photos, realistic to abstract)

Monday, February 06, 2012

Response to ONE SINGLE IMPRESSION Prompt of 2-5-12


MESSAGE TO SELF

sour grapes ferment
into bitter wine
drop them instead
on the compost heap

feel how your emptied
hands now itch
to till a plot of your own

know new life will
stir in the humid
depths moved by
the sun’s affirmation


The prompt for this week at One Single Impression is SOUR GRAPES. This is the first non-dream based poem I've written in a while and I'm grateful for the impetus of the prompt. I'd also hope you feel the impetus to go visit One Single Impression and see what other contributors have come up with, each in their unique fashion.

The photo is an old one of mine, called "The View From Here." It was taken in Art Alley in Lompoc, CA, which is not too far from where I live. The alley has mural after mural on its walls, in an amazing array of styles and subjects. (One of my favorites is of a group of blue cows.)

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, the term I mostly use of "dreamku" to distinguish what I do from those traditional forms.

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 ****

Sunday, February 05, 2012

SIDE BY SIDE (photo) & BALLAD OF THE DOUBLED LIE (dreamku)


BALLAD OF THE DOUBLED LIE

he disguises himself
as her returning true love
his darkly handsome lie
leaves her with a baby
as he goes on crusade

she wanders around
the cold castle from room to room
shunned by the courtiers
but refusing to give up
and give away her child

her lying lover
appears suddenly as himself
magnanimously
insisting on marrying her and
adopting her baby girl

the lie now doubled, still
her gullible nature responds
only to his glamour
she accepts his offers but
wonders at her vague discomfort

she oddly recalls
Rumpelstiltskin and feels urged to learn
her baby’s true name
but one gaze from her infant
and she knows all that matters:

this small golden head
against her breast with dawn in her eyes
the next new moment


[dreamku series on a dream of 10-28-11. In grammatical usage, a double negative can conceivably be read as a positive. Similarly then, does a doubled lie result in a truth? Photo "Side by Side" 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, the term I mostly use of "dreamku" to distinguish what I do from those traditional forms.

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 ****

Saturday, February 04, 2012

ACCOMMODATING THE LIGHT (photo) & LUCID LACK (dreamku)


LUCID LACK

my prize as winner:
an age-appropriate date --
we visit veterans
abandoned in a nursing home
among garbage and vermin

they all have kittens
their only source of affection --
clearly unhealthy
these sweet ailing creatures
dote on the war veterans

my choked back tears
as much for my helplessness
as for the lucid lack
of despair or self-pity:
none here feel unloved


[three tanka on a dream of 1-17-12. A very odd dream indeed. I find it hard to verbalize what it says to me. But I guess the best way to put it is to say it contains a humbling. A reminder not only to be grateful, but to embrace love's omnipresence. That's not to say conditions such as these dream veterans, and pets -- and some actual veterans, and pets -- live under should be ignored and left unaddressed. Just to recognize that love can grow anywhere, under any conditions. Photo "Accommodating the Light" 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, the term I mostly use of "dreamku" to distinguish what I do from those traditional forms.

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 ****

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

FALLOUT (photo) and OF XYLOPHONES & MISSTEPS (dreamku)


OF XYLOPHONES & MISSTEPS

he strolls onto the
flooded wharf just behind me
with his young teacher –
she carries the xylophone
he’s learning how to play

“plunk..plunk plunk” and “plunk”
he shows off for us soggy
footed strollers

a cool pursuit, for sure
but I’m more concerned about
what lies underfoot ...
and what’s happened to the stores
and the railings on the sides ...

where does the wharf end
and the sea begin on this narrow
path to the horizon
one misstep could dump me in
the cold and unforgiving drink


[a tanka, dreamku, and two tanka on a dream of 1-21-12. Photo "Fallout" 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, the term I mostly use of "dreamku" to distinguish what I do from those traditional forms.

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 ****