CONNEXIONS (photo) & LOST LIVES (dream tanka series) by Roswila

LOST LIVES

The Past

the infant tumbles
right out of the man's arms
we rush to catch him
I snatch at the baby just
as he falls to the subway tracks

my heavens and stars!
dare we go down there and risk
hitting the third rail
hell, I mutter, and jump
to the garbage strewn tracks

I begin yelling
and waving frantically at
the train I see coming:
there's a baby down here!
there's a baby down here!


The Present

they invite me,
their poor country mouse cousin,
to her surprise party,
and to my surprise a friendly
man actually takes to me

as he and I chat
getting to know each other
the subject of what's
been lost in each of our lives
gradually surfaces

I comment sadly
that they never did find
that baby on the tracks,
did they? that I always thought
a homeless person rescued him

homeless live down there,
you know, in dusty abandoned
stations and work rooms
forming the bare bones
of motley communities

if they took him in
it's just as well we leave him be
by now they're the only
home and family he's ever known:
the lost eke out lives where they land


[two part tanka series on a dream of 6-18-13. I hasten say that this is not intended to romanticize the actual encampments of folk living in just these circumstances. (I recall hearing about such in the New York city subway tunnels, back when I lived there years ago.) Though I do hold with the observation that the human urge toward community is strong. However, this dreamku series is purely metaphorical, about my own life/psychology. Photo "Connexions" 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.