VULCANISM (photo) & NO ESCAPING IT (dreamku series) by Roswila

NO ESCAPING IT

my companion and
I escape the disaster
totally unscathed
we turn to look behind us
trembling with disbelief

barely three yards away
some of our friends are being
ministered to by
late arriving rescuers at
this massive explosion site

one male friend hovers
close by his woman-partner
who keeps yelling
”Get her off me, get her off”
to the attending medics,

as this EMT team
works frantically to remove
the bits and pieces
of the woman’s other friend,
blown apart and stuck all over her

will we ever close
our stunned minds to the sight
there’s no escaping it


[four tanka capped by a two-liner on a dream of 8-3-12. This dream/ku may seem to contain rather hyperbolic images. However, at a personal emotional level it is rather too accurate, offering one particularly disturbing but helpful realization as I drafted it. It also contains some day residue. A book I was reading last night stirred memories of 9/11 -- I was living in New York City at the time -- when it every so often listed huge natural disasters and mass human murders. Though I should add that the most basic level to the dream is not rooted in 9/11 memories. I will finish the book, by the way. It’s exploring important subjects. Photo “Vulcanism” 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.

CANYONS OF YOUR MIND (photo) & NOT BUYING IT (dream tanka series) by Roswila

NOT BUYING IT

her dream incubation
question answered with a scene
about employment:
why not try something wholly new
draw way outside your own lines

leave the offices
that reward poorly for your skills
retrieve your lost soul
from all that ignorant
and endless battering

go down to the streets
see that fresh produce stand
why not sell veggies
and stop buying the necessity
of your forever slavery


[three tanka on a dream of 8-3-12. Hm, should I go into this one? I will say this much: the incubating question was about a physical health issue. The answer I hear in this dream/ku may very well be a good example of how dreams can act as “projection vessels.” I.e., I’m hearing what I need/want to hear, not necessarily anything innate to its images and action. However, if it be “only” projection and gives me a clue about what to do next it is most certainly welcome. (By the way, as I’ve noted here before, in one dream theory many if not most dreams have no innate meaning. They are briefly caught bits and pieces of the brain’s sleep-time work filing and connecting new and old memories. Bits our conscious mind instantaneously pieces together on waking in a crazy quilt that we “remember” as the dream.) Photo “Canyons of Your Mind” by Roswila: This one may look familiar as it's the third version of it I’ve posted here. I pass this chimney at least twice each day and it looks different in every light, kind of weather, and position from which I view it. But this shot remains the best I've caught of it yet so I keep coming back to it.]

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.

THE NATURE OF DREAMING (photo) & OLD SCHOOL (dreamku series) by Roswila

OLD SCHOOL

schools out of her past --
up close and at a distance --
inform the night’s dreams
why this return to high school
to college hallways and stairs

what’s to be learned back
there, or rather what about
now echoes those years
of lonely achievement
and proud creative denial

the years in which hope
first became a regular guest
heralding failure


[two tanka and a dreamku on a dream of 8-1-12. The key to this dream/ku is in the title. When I thought of the title’s idiomatic meaning of being stuck in old or traditional ways, this rather vaguely recalled dream opened up for me. As I’ve noted here before, this is one of the reasons I always try to find a title that feels just right for a dreamku series. That search sometimes boils the dream/ku down to an important essence I may not have gotten to otherwise. I also enjoy the way a dream can make a point with a visual pun. In this case, by showing one old school of mine after another. Photo “The Nature of Dreaming” 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.

CELEBRATING THE LIGHT (photo) & A CHANGE OF HEART (science fiction haibun, not dream-based) by Roswila

A CHANGE OF HEART
(a science fiction haibun* in an alien's voice)


We are happily drinking the rising light when the foreign thing crashes through us, scattering poisonous shadows. Our ancestral stories speak of such things: solids, carrying even stranger solids – living things who breathe in either light or shadow:

filling in
the wound of passage:
light heals all

We are briefly shocked – a rare feeling indeed – when a small solid separates from the larger solid. Although this little solid does not allow light to travel through, its surface carries light as it hovers quietly, bobbing:

oh, this “I”
is so lonely!
darkness looms

We return to feeding on the joyous light, disturbed as the small solid’s feelings of separateness spread rapidly among us. They are so dense, these feelings. Will they block the light? Then it leaps:

the solid enters
our tumbling joy:
shadows burn away

The little solid spins madly, radiating fear. But what can it possibly be afraid of here? We are in joy, feeding together, singing to and through each other. This is the state we endlessly create, in spite of returning shadows, in spite of the dark’s cold fingers:

the solid’s fear
chills us:
joy is fleeting

We have no concept for this return of our songs from the outside of the solid in our midst, mixed with its fading fear. We have only “through” and “toward" and “with” for singing. But trailing our songs returned by the solid comes a new conception:

we are atremble
with this discovery:
this cry, this “echo”

And, oh, the small solid’s song of fear vibrates on to a new level, thrilling through us with our mutual delight at new understandings:

the solid knows!
the giving
is the song

Our old heart bursts, the eons of memories it holds for us diffused easily into our nearest nascent heart. We trill our old heart’s death joy:

hearts change
the songs
go on forever


[not dream based, written in 2001; *"haibun" -- prose lines followed by haiku, in this case scifaiku -- haiku-like poems with science fiction/fantasy themes. "A Change of Heart" was initially written in response to a writing prompt offered by an online scifaiku group I was very active in. I posted this here years ago; and I’m not sure what brought it to mind this morning. I suppose because I’ve been going through another (lengthy) loss of heart and wondering if this time there will be a rebirth. Photo “Celebrating the Light” 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.

IN THE LAND OF WINTER (photo) & ICE DANCING (non-dream based tanka) by Roswila

ICE DANCING

stay in the moment
(they gently assert again)
and while it melts
beneath your dancing feet leap
to the next crackling floe


[a regular tanka -- i.e. not based on a dream -- written in early July 2012; photo “In the Land of Winter” 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.

THE CIRCLING (photo) & CAN OR CANT (dreamku series) by Roswila

CAN OR CANT

two men, neither of
whom do I like, one an actor
the other an author –
each in his turn loftily insists
on my presence and attention

the redhead has enough
presence of his own to see
my lack of interest
he takes his act elsewhere --
enter: the pushy author

the nerve of some men!
yet I still can’t seem to say no
to staying and
listening to the author’s
lecture to his circle of friends

it’s kind to call them
friends, this insufferable cult
their cant’s obvious
then I realize that I
can just get up and leave

various people
around the room try to re-
engage me as I stand
but what do I care what they
say or think about me

I pause just long enough to steep
in victory: I truly can’t care less


[five tanka capped by a two-liner written and dreamed on 7-2-12. Well, those last two lines are a bit of an over-statement. But in as much as imagining/visualizing doing something fires up the same neural networks in our brains as if we were physically doing it, this dream gives me hope. It’s like a dress rehearsal. Photo “The Circling” 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.

THE SYLPHS OF SUMMER (photo) & THE DOCKING (dreamku series) by Roswila

THE DOCKING

mini-dirigibles
bounce against the ceiling
of the sun lit room
(would you say that hot air
abounds around this place?)

I bend the very
tall man to my curves, one arm
around his high neck,
the other firmly girdling
the taut waist of his long back

what height he’s attained
in order to stay out of
any close embrace!
I continue tugging him
down against my wide body

a slow unresisted docking mutual harbor


[three tanka capped by a monoku on a dream of 7-28-12. Photo “The Sylphs of Summer” 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.