THE SNARL (photo) & FAMILY DYNAMICS (dreamku series) by Roswila

FAMILY DYNAMICS

the fearful toddler
cries out in the night for help
“A man with a gun”
she wails, “he’s standing right here,
oh please, please come get me!”

I’m all but certain
it’s one of her nightmares
and rush to calm her,
hoping to shield her from her
father’s usual irritation

but there a shadowy
figure stands with a pistol –
I turn too late to
warn her father away, and
we’re both held at bay by the gun

then the girl’s older
sister steps into the picture
she backs up the gunman:
a teen and her boyfriend on a
lark? or in a serious plot?

all I know is child, father, and I need rescue
but the question still remains from what?


[four tanka and a capping two-liner on a dream of 2-19-13. I’m not clear yet on what dynamics this dream is addressing. Only that something about it all feels very familiar, if couched in unfamiliar terms. Maybe a better word than “couched” would be “compressed.” Ah, yes, this dream is like a zip file that I have to find the proper program with which to open it. (Almost all dreams are, to me, like zip files. And my dreamku wind up addressing only one or two major “files” among those packed in any one dream. It’s rare that I feel a dream goes no further than one level or one association. And those are usually very small dreams that are probably fragments of forgotten larger ones, or silly “thinking” ones in which I’m playing around with words and such.] Photo “The Snarl” 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:

-- very brief comparison of dreamku and haiku: DREAMKU ARE NOT HAIKU

-- 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 short up-dating post about the three-part "A DREAMKU PRIMER" -- Important Up-date to A DREAMKU PRIMER....".

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‘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.