Queens, NY (1930's photo) & YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN (dreamku series) by Roswila

YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN

taped to door after
building door along the street
pink eviction slips
have I made the trip back to my
old neighborhood for nothing?

where in this welter
of endings is the doctor’s
office I’m to visit?
it’s past my appointment time
and it’s nowhere to be found

my arms start to ache
from carrying so much stuff
I set it all down
in a corridor of doors
with eviction notices

I make a fast check
of this long empty hallway
returning quickly
only to find someone’s
absconded with my things

what a pretty fix
no more doctor’s office and
now my belongings –
chasing after the janitor
I carp about this theft

I pass a cross corridor and neatly piled there
rests all my things, my precious endless stuff

a cleaning person
stored it all to keep it safe
is my face red!


[five tanka capped by a two-liner and a dreamku on a dream of 3-22-13. Interesting that the only color in this dream is those pink eviction slips (the blushing at the end is metaphorical). As if the only life is in the leaving. 1930’s photo: Only one long block from the scene of the dream, right near where I lived in Queens, NY for 24 years before moving to CA. Although this photo is of a shopping area (then and now) the buildings’ style is also that of the apartment buildings in the immediate area, and the feel of this photo is much like that of the dream: old and colorless (except for those pink slips)]

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.