ALONG THE WAY (photo) & TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA (dream tanka series) by Roswila

TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA

the young male intern
checks all the preemies carefully
a baker’s dozen
they lie squirming together
each in their own white blanket

astoundingly born
to the same mother they’d been
abandoned where birthed,
a heavily thicketed
roadside embankment

the intern’s sympathy
for the run away mother
rises with his fear:
how can he possibly meet
such a welter of needs


[three tanka on a dream of 10-19-12. FYI, the title means “fear of the number thirteen.” Like yesterday’s dream/ku this is chock full. Touching on just a wee bit of it all, I see echos of my “objective” life right now, but also identify with those 13 preemies. I had one interesting thought re: the male being an intern. Not only is he just one in a large staff of others who provide care, but he’s still learning. He was not at all aware of this in the dream and felt totally responsible for caring for all 13 infants. But I need to remember I am not in the same position (with my own needs or anyone else’s), and his being an intern clued me in to that. There’s also the number thirteen’s association with death, even though in the dream imagery it’s aligned with birth. Photo “Along the Way” 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.

SHADES OF MEMORY (photo) & VINTAGE (tanka series) by Roswila

VINTAGE

I leave the long pre-
wedding party to tie up
loose ends for my move,
that I was asked and welcomed
still a delight and surprise

I will return to these
sweet new friends but for now seek
a piece of the past:
I find where my father played
ball in a vacant lot

as it was back then
so now – only bordered by a
broken chain link fence
and littered with wind-blown
garbage and shattered bottles

I clamber onto
the lot and over to the lake
a large lump presses
on the ball of my bare left foot
I sit down to check it out

stuck there is a pair
of infant’s sandals,
decomposing and dark
and rife with who knows what germs
I must get them off my foot

as I scrape at them
an eldritch old bag lady
brightly proclaims:
“They’re vintage W.W.II German,
see what’s left of hand-knotted lace?”

I care only that
I’ve gotten them off my foot,
filing away that they’re
old German for some future
excavation of meaning

I concentrate on
burying them so no one else
will get stuck with them --
the ground resists my efforts
but slowly gives way

after burial
I flap my still sticky foot
around in Mother
Earth’s dust to cleanse it,
like a small bird bathing


[tanka series on one dream of 10-17-12. This one is even more loaded than it might appear to be and way too much to go into even a fraction of it. The associations to my present life alone would go on for paragraphs. (One in particular to an awful story of a father’s abuse of his daughter that I saw on T.V. before bed time.) Suffice it to say, it’s about a major transition. I also think there are what’s called “implicit memories” in it. That is, memories that have emotional repercussions even though one doesn’t recall them consciously. Even memories of one or another of my parents that I either sensed or was privy to at too young an age to register consciously. Photo “Shades of Memory”]

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.

LAZY AFTERNOON (photo) & LIFE WITH FATHER (dream tanka series) by Roswila

LIFE WITH FATHER

our father says he’ll
help me and a younger sibling
decide where to place
furniture and pictures, now
that a fourth person’s moved out

I mistakenly
assume we’ll each get a vote
on what to put where
but our father indulges
his tyrannical bent

not only does he
readily veto our choices
but he won’t listen
so that I must constantly
repeat everything we suggest

frustration rises
I grab his hand and chomp
down on it gently:
sometimes the hand that feeds you
deserves a little bite


[four tanka on a dream of 10-17-12. It was a very busy night last night; this is only the first of at least a half dozen dreams I recall. Including a novella-like one on which I’ve already drafted a series that I’ll probably post tomorrow. That dream also contains “father” and a reference to moving out, and is a study in contrasts. Then, the last dream I had before waking put me in the parenting position, happily caring for and carrying around a large male infant who spoke like an adult. Photo “Lazy Afternoon” 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.

VOCIFERATION (photo) & SPEECH (dreamku series) by Roswila

SPEECH

the president wins
one of the contest prizes:
a special speech
with poetic phrases and
suggested hand gestures

his presentation
is spot on, no hitches or
fumbling -- but something
implied in the content
itself doesn’t suit him at all

sigh - even the president gets words put in his mouth


[two tanka and a monoku on a dream of 10-16-12. Yes, I watched the second presidential debate last night but this dream is not a comment on it. Rather, the debate provided the setting for something I have a hard time with in my own life, especially recently. And that’s contained in the expression referenced in the closing monoku: don’t put words in my mouth (or anyone else’s). I find it barely tolerable when anyone jumps to speaking for someone else, rather than listening to or questioning them. So much so that when someone makes me aware I've done it, I'm stunned and humbled (again). Photo “Vociferation” 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.

HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL (photo) & FIRST DAY (dreamku series) by Roswila

FIRST DAY

her new coworkers
and bosses seem genuinely
welcoming and nice,
the office’s windows large with
a grand view over the city

one boss hands her a
sheet of specs for the phone system
no maintenance crew
for this brand spanking new
high-rise office building

secretaries and
file clerks, executives, too,
handle installations
and repairs in the slew of
cubicles on the premises

she figures she can
cope with this extra work load
and the specs are clear
what irks her is the wild wind
from a wide open window

dare she say something?
her first day on the job and a
complaint already?


[four tanka and a dreamku on a dream of 10-15-12. Photo “Half Empty or Half Full” 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.

MELTDOWN (photo) & ALL METAPHORS LEAD TO FOOD (two dream series) by Roswila

ALL METAPHORS LEAD TO FOOD
(two dreams/one night)

Dream One

her x-ray results
await interpretation,
unique crazing in
the heart of a sherbert
raspberry ice pop

where’s her doctor?
these lines have to be read
before they melt away


Dream Two

adolescent girls
pirouette and arabesque
their ways around the stage –
a multi-media artist
deftly paints on each dancer

she recalls the first
time she tried to make art in
the moving moment:
“Like slapstick comedy,”
she thinks, “a colorful pie toss”


[two dreamku series on two separate dreams of 10-13-12. Photo “Meltdown” 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.