JUST ANOTHER PRETTY FACE (photo) & THE CONTRAPTION (dreamku series) by Roswila

THE CONTRAPTION

that friend from my teens
and I sort through our stuff
so I can pack up –
it’s time for me to move from
this apartment we’ve shared

she hands me a box
of hers: transparent, about
cigarette carton size
but shorter and higher, with
artful lines and a flip-up lid

my puzzlement deepens
when I see she’s taped costume
jewelry of mine
to its bottom “So it won’t
fall out,” she quickly says

as she tells me about
the box it’s clear there’s more
than is apparent
she shows me the exhaust pipe
for built-up carbon dioxide

“Don’t put your hands in
the flow when it starts,” she adds,
“though it’s safe to dump
the run off onto the earth
or into the recyclables”

do I want or need such an odd contraption,
pretty to look at, but such high maintenance


[five tanka capped by a two-liner on a dream of 5-7-13. Photo “Just Another Pretty Face” 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 relate to 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.

Also please note that a dreamku is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. A dreamku is my attempt to get down dream imagery/action that grabs me and, as I write about it, elicits my conscious written association and response. Nor do I believe that one has to remember dreams in order for them to do their work. In my understanding, we are much more than our conscious selves.

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.