FILLING IN THE BLANKS (photo art) & THE LAST RE-RUN (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE LAST RE-RUN

it's not bad enough there's all those re-runs
on T.V. but now the NCIS team's illegally
searching the top floor apartment I've just
vacated in this three family home

their almost comical tip-toeing around
and shushing of each other is topped
only by the huge photo of them they didn't
even notice pasted to the front door,
covered with cartoon-like video graffiti
as if anticipating their snooping

the head of the team then tells me I should
read the description of the top floor's
designation as OK'd for either residence
or work space, to the neighbors gathering
downstairs in the tiny front yard

a know-it-all stranger arrives just as we
reach the narrow sunny yard, expecting
to make this announcement himself
from the messy sheaf of papers
he flaps in his waving fist

neither the team manager nor I want
him to do so as we know he'll go on
forever and worse scare everyone off
with his officiousness, while I can
speak to the issue, short and sweet

before anything's decided I mention we'd
not let the woman who's going to rent
this space know that my younger brother
lives in a small room way at the back
of the floor, and that he has his own
entrance so it's highly unlikely she'll
ever see him, much less that he'll
disturb her business

the man holding the messy batch
of legal papers could not care less,
and still insists on being the one
to inform everyone of what he claims
to be the complications of this rental

I turn my back on his puffed up protestations
and hobble up the three flights of stairs again
for one last look at where I'd lived for 23 years


[free verse poem on a dream of 9-22-13. NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service and in case you've somehow missed it, is a T.V. show. It's been in endless re-runs out here even as a new season starts this week. The top floor apartment of the three family home in this dream was very much like where I did live in New York City for 23 years before moving here to California in 2008. And, yes, it was a three floor walk-up. I see this dream as the beginning of vacating a certain way of thinking/being. And that younger brother staying behind -- some still immature aspect of myself, or some sense that I'm finally letting go of an aspect, leaving it behind? Photo "Filling in the Blanks" (8-26-13) by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, monoku, free verse, etc. -- 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 dream poem is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. It 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 (the specific forms of dreamku, tanka, two-liners and monoku) you may do here, that in the beginning I stressed "showing, not telling." However, this 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). This pretty much applies to free verse dream poems as well.

For more in-depth exploration of the dreamku forms specifically (and one post in which I also address my photo choices):

-- 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 connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.