Roswila's Dream & Poetry Realm

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

Sunday, October 07, 2012

SAYING GRACE (photo) & ON BRIGHTON BEACH BOARDWALK (old, non-dream poem) by Roswila



ON BRIGHTON BEACH BOARDWALK

Decades have passed since I last
traced this shoreline.
Restaurants now bear chic names
and umbrellas over their trendy outdoor
tables, where memory holds out for crowded
bars and Jewish delis opening on the boardwalk,
awash in aromas of beer and knishes.

I am startled to find the old wooden
steps down to the beach buried in the sand,
only the top curve of railing still beckoning,
a beginning that is its own ending.

The beach itself has narrowed
with the years, even as I have expanded,
both ocean and my shadow claiming
more territory, like the sand packed
beneath the boardwalk burying that dark
cave we teenagers retreated to.

That underground I played in, grasping
after the brass ring in a life spinning
rapidly out of control, as I drank too much
and necked with one guy or another
in the boardwalk’s shadows.

With one heavy sigh I accept that the cave
and its shadows have been laid to rest, slowly
and surely, gracefully and not, with the passing
of season after season.

I sit on a bench to rest my aging knees, giving
way gratefully to the immediacy of light
and heat, to this moment of clear
skies and all-embracing seas.

Sometimes it is good
to be faced with good-bye.


* * * *

[No viable dream recall from last night, which is a little surprising given I went to sleep in an upset mood. So I started wandering through really old posts to see if one might be suitable for today. I stumbled on this now 16 year old poem previously posted here in 2007. What I try to address in the poem remains as true for me as the day I first drafted it in 1996 when still living in New York City. I had participated in a Labor Day poetry reading on the boardwalk by Coney Island -- which is just a walk down the way from Brighton Beach. After the reading, I decided to stroll to Brighton Beach, not having visited it in at least 25 years. I am reposting this poem today for its reminder about good-byes, which I am sorely in need of right now. Image "Saying Grace," new photo 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 TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

Saturday, October 06, 2012

FISHING FOR THE MOON (photo) & THE TANGLED HOLD (dreamku series) by Roswila



THE TANGLED HOLD

the shadow figure
slips into her bedroom before
the white wood door shuts
it glides silently to her bedside
hovering behind her turned back

she strains to roll over
and face it down, but can
neither lift nor turn
even her heavy head from
the tangled hold of her bed

what is it stands there
behind her, a neap tide of fear
gravitating toward it
like some midnight ocean
bedeviled by a full moon …

no, she’ll not have this! she wrenches herself awake


[three tanka capped by a monoku on a dream of 10-5-12. Photo “Fishing for the Moon” 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 TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

Friday, October 05, 2012

CRESTING (photo) & PADDLING (tanka series) by Roswila



PADDLING

sitting in a small flat-
bottomed tin tub she paddles
around with her hands
it’s not an urban lake or pond
she’s navigating but a flood

manufacturing
must has been done in these
now sodden buildings
their doors underwater
with fish traps set out hastily

something smells fishy
and it’s not the rickety traps
it’s her intuition
she can feel eyes on her
from the dark squat buildings

she makes one last spin
on the smooth water simply
for the fun of it
then hand paddles quickly backward
past the looming windows

she can’t see the way
out of this drowned complex
but backwards is faster
so she paddles on trusting
the strong impetus to flee


[five tanka on a dream of 10-4-12. Photo “Cresting” 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 TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

Thursday, October 04, 2012

CAPPING THE WELL (photo) & THE EASTER BASKET (tanka series) by Roswila



THE EASTER BASKET

the cookie-flower
images float, filling the wall
from edge to edge
still uncertain what they are
I stand staring at them

their pastel colors
call to mind a giant
Easter basket, its
candies and eggs wistfully
peeking from shiny fake grass

nostalgia rises
like a physical hunger –
enough of what’s gone!
as if it were a window
I shut the vision down


[three tanka on a dream of 10-3-12. In the vein of yesterday’s post, here’s another wish fulfillment dream. I have been in one of those periods in my life when memories and all sorts of attendant emotions have been haunting me. I should also note the food references. The primary way I have dealt with overwhelming emotions and/or memories has been to eat. BTW, I’ve not given up on my recent healthy eating campaign. But it’s clear I’m smack dab in the middle of the most challenging aspect of this change: finding other healthful ways to calm myself than to eat too much and/or unhealthy foods. And that Easter tanka is a good illustration of how I feel in life in general: yearning for rebirth, but fearful of it (all that candy, and a strong association to “snake in the grass”). Lastly, this was also vaguely lucid at the end as I was aware I was ending a dream when I “shut” the image down. Photo “Capping the Well” 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 TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

TUMBLING (photo) & WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIEND (tanka & dreamku) by Roswila



WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIEND

first, she sorts my laundry
next night, washed but still wet she
stores it in a large can
another night, this best friend
hangs it all up to dry

starting at the top
I take my dry laundry down
ease and gratitude

[one tanka and a dreamku written and dreamed in January 2009. No viable dream recall from last night, so I’m posting this previously unposted wish fulfillment dream. Sigh. Sure wish I could have my laundry done for me. (I presently have three loads awaiting their fate.) This dream also puts me in mind of the fairy tale “The Shoemaker’s Elves.” Photo “Tumbling” 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 TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

Monday, October 01, 2012

POETRY NOOK (photo) & ONE (dreamku series) by Roswila



ONE

all these women friends
each getting older and frailer
long-time good friends
one passes a different
letter from her to each of us

all but one’s an
open letter – I start trying
to figure out what’s
in that single sealed missive
to my friend on the left

why do I care – and why does it make me anxious?


[two tanka and a monoku on a dream of 9-30-12. Photo “Poetry Nook” by Roswila; this is of a hallway shelf on our retirement community grounds where poetry gets shared]

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 TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.