CIRCLE DANCE (photo) & FROM EAST TO WEST (four dream tanka) by Roswila

FROM EAST TO WEST

her dark curls atwirl
she tells me she wants to
form a dance group here
"Like Barefoot Boogie," she says,
"do you remember it?"

quickly adding
"I've no dance training
only a deep love
with an eye honed on the neon
shapes twisting through life back east"

my joy leaps higher
than a young Baryshinikov
"Not to worry," I say,
"your enthusiasm and keen
awareness are all you need"

yes, she's finally
ready to bring it all here
to the western hills
her reclaimed verve as abundant
as the light glistening in her hair


[four tanka on a dream of 6-6-13. *"Barefoot Boogie" = a freestyle barefoot dance group that has been meeting regularly in New York City since 1982; I went to it every week for several years in my late 30's. This dreamk/ku was the last dream of that night. The first dream was posted yesterday ("Home on the Range"). They are very much like flipsides to the same coin. Both are necessary, as necessary as they are different. Yesterday's addresses boundaries and limits (keeping out). Today's, reclaiming, reincorporating (taking in). They each suggest how to accomplish their task: yesterday intuition ("spidey sense") and today keen awareness. As almost always, there's a whole lot more to this dream/ku and to yesterday's. But what I say here boils them down to what I find essential to and supportive of my current life challenges and efforts. Photo "Circle Dance" 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.

You may also note in any further reading on dreamku you may do, that in the beginning I stressed "showing, not telling." However, that has been changing for some time now. I now tend to "show" (the dream narrative) and cap if off with a "tell" (some reaction and/or insight I've had to the dream as I was writing about it).

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.