REMORSE (photo) & TOO LATE (dream tanka series) by Roswila

TOO LATE

the difficult man
knows he needs to mature
if he wants a mate –
emboldened by progress he’s made
he pursues the love of his life:

a famous sit-com
star, who leads him on a walk
through a sunny swamp,
their connection tentative
but real as they slog along

the social tether
between them strains when he
heaps praise upon her,
then adds it’s a crime she isn’t
offered serious acting roles

she stops short, water
sloshing around her ankles –
too late he knows
he’s pushed not only too far,
too soon, but opened old wounds

she and the air chill
he can almost see their slim
connection as it snaps
his next work’s cut out for him:
learning to see boundaries


[five tanka on a dream of 11-9-12. Photo “Remorse” 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.

THE BLOSSOMING (photo) & NO STRINGS (dreamku series) by Roswila

NO STRINGS

the basket he sends
her by way of apology
is filled with plant bulbs
and a small drink coaster set
made of scrap wood tree rings

her initial urge
to throw them away is curbed
by piqued interest:
what will the bulbs become
and the tree rings teach?

she decides not to
throw the baby out with
the bath water
she’ll keep the basket of future
growth and past experience

there are no strings she’s already let him go


[three tanka and capping monoku on a dream of 11-8-12. Photo “The Blossoming” 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.

ALL WET (photo) & THE LOCKED CABINET (non-dream based poem) by Roswila

THE LOCKED CABINET
(non-dream based poem)

like strips of mending
tape on a wet surface none
of the night’s dreams stick,
each waking flooded by
the same decades old memory:

a male co-worker
and I lunch together
as we often did --
even in those years his bow tie
was viewed as rather up tight

but I found it, well,
just him, as I did his
formality and
his valuable gun collection
displayed in a glass cabinet

I try to recall
what happened to this friendship --
in memory I
stand before that cabinet
as he softly asserts:

"I threatened suicide once but don’t worry
the cabinet’s locked and I don’t have a key"


[four tanka and a capping two-liner on a very old waking memory that kept coming up last night (11-7-12) as I woke between lost dreams. Whatever the relationship may or may not have been between the memory and lost dreams, this old memory itself is totally dream-like in its impact on me. Photo “All Wet” 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.

DIVING FOR SEED PEARLS (photo) & THE QUESTION (dreamku series) by Roswila

THE QUESTION

highly intelligent,
handsome, and difficult
to get close to,
this man who’s suffered much
in the ways that I have

I mute my joy when
he apparently welcomes
our cuddling on a bench –
I in his lap facing him,
we press heart to heart silently

his band mates arrive
for their gig and we separate
but our connection
remains, warming my breast
and lighting his sad eyes

he turns to watch as I
jump feet first off the boardwalk
into the ocean
totally submerging in
a spontaneous ballet

those pinpoints of joy in his distant eyes …
will they still be there when I surface


[four tanka and a capping two-liner on a dream of 11-5.12. Photo “Diving for Seed Pearls” 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.

THE DISPLAY (photo) & THE ARTIST VIEWS HER WORK (dream tanka trio) by Roswila

THE ARTIST VIEWS HER WORK

two of her huge glass
worms curve horizontally along
the art gallery walls
their colorless clarity
bending the overhead light

only their round eyes
and the aura from their heads
bear any color,
a soft translucent coral
offering a hint of warmth

she views the great length
of each of the worms in turn
surprised at her ease:
every curve is where it should be
she’d change nothing about them at all


[three tanka on a dream of 11-4-12. Laugh – Out – Loud! I’ve had tremendous fun with worm associations while writing this tanka trio, though there are too many of them -- all applicable in some way -- to comment on here. So I’ll simply share my uppermost thoughts. First, I’m really encouraged by that total acceptance at the end. (I’m a rather compulsive editor and reviser; nothing is ever right or enough. Nor can I leave my past alone, let it be what it was. I’m always trying to find some new or better way to understand it.) I also like that “she” has been making art out of worms -- lemonade out of lemons, anyone? Second, is a gentle butt kicking. As I was feeling sorry for myself yesterday I recalled an expression my father used on me when I was a kid. I’d be whining, yes, but sometimes genuinely trying to get his help with the pain and confusion of feeling disliked. He’d respond with our family’s version of a kid’s rhyme: “Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I’m gonna go sit in the garbage and eat worms.” I’d laugh but, of course, it was rarely a satisfying or helpful response to have received. However, the laugh I got out of it yesterday freed me from an intense mental mire, allowing me to gain perspective. Last, I look forward to exploring that “soft translucent coral” color a bit more, using Bob Hoss’s color in dreams chart. My gut take right now is that it’s pointing towards something new, possibly that acceptance at the end. Photo “The Display” 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.

SONG OF SORROW (photo) & SINGING LESSON (dreamku series) by Roswila

SINGING LESSON

I deeply regret
the musical collaboration
they play anything
and everything but what
we agreed to and rehearsed

my fear’s sunk me
yet another time – I’d
only said yes to
their joining my act thinking
I wasn’t enough alone

I sold out for a song …
for many songs and wrong ones,
at that -- lesson learned


[two tanka and a dreamku on a dream of 11-3-12. Photo “Song of Sorrow” 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.