NIGHTMARE (photo) & TO BE OF USE (old dream-based scifaiku series) by Roswila

TO BE OF USE

we volunteer
to protect the shoreline
evil from the sea

an ugly tendril
pierces my forearm
gene hunter

I am afraid
that I’ll transmogrify
lock me up

check my DNA
for clues to this invader
use me


[four dream-based scifaiku written on a dream in December of 2006. Scifaiku stand pretty much in the same relationship to haiku as dreamku. Only they have a sci-fi, fantasy, cosmological, or horror focus. This series can clearly be considered both dreamku and scifaiku. It’s another example of the rather abbreviated dreamku, scifaiku, and haiku style I worked in a great deal back then. Sometimes it worked, but I’m not certain it works all that well here. But I share the series today because I’ve always enjoyed the science fiction scenario it uses to get across a psychological fear. Yes, that may sound odd to enjoy something that’s addressing a fear, say, or something deeply painful. However, I often find this happens with my attempts at artistic expression. Maybe that’s what’s healing about art. The process can help create a distance that makes room for whatever may be needed at the moment. I just titled this series today and it’s a reference to Marge Piercy’s poem of the same name (the last two lines: The pitcher cries for water to carry // and a person for work that is real). In fact I think back then my feeling utterly useless, and doing useless temporary office work, was at least as scary to me as the worry over deep psychological issues. (The issue of being useful now largely fuels my volunteer work in our community.) This is not to ignore the psychological implications of this series at the time it was written and even to some degree at present. Just to highlight another aspect to its story. Photo “Nightmare” 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.