JALAMA BEACH (photo) & IMAGINE THIS (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

IMAGINE THIS

she's hired to paint oil
pastels in photo realistic style
on the back walls of panoramic
life-size walk-in scenes -- the boss
crows about a new customer a very
wealthy young family who's paying
through the nose for the biggest
panorama ever: a simple but
exacting wide ocean view
from a spreading dark wood
beach house -- its construction
proceeds rapidly (after all they're
receiving a staggering pay load for
it) even though the boss insists
they not stop or even slow
work on several other
smaller projects -- she
harbors a deep concern that
the quality of these other projects
is suffering and when the rich family
who ordered the beach scene arrives
she herds them away from the
smaller panoramas to their
own: glowing in the late
afternoon sun it stands
completed already awaiting
only a family to explore it's wide
and overarching beach view -- the youngest
son rushes into the foreground to stand by the
open sliding glass doors of the modern beach house
exclaiming with the kind of verve only a child
can have "It's exactly like real!" gesturing
excitedly first to his family then to
the far distant sky painted so
carefully in pastels that is seems
to promise a sunset and then stars as
it sings into infinity on either side -- the boy
stands awed into silence backed by the rest
of his speechless family -- imagination
once given a home knows no bounds

[free verse poem on a dream of 9-1-13. After I wrote this I began to wonder at the implied high cost of giving a home to imagination. I was disturbed but thought, hey, it's not been an easy road for me and my imagination. Then it hit me, that's taking the metaphor too literally (if that isn't a contradiction in terms, lol) and that the cost/wealth referred to may represent the richness of imagination. Now, as I type this, I think both are contained in the metaphor. And that boss is quite the ego, isn't he? Doing the coordination, and all full of himself. While what he supervises the production of ultimately turns out to be something much more once inhabited. Hm. Gives me pause, lots of pause. A note on the form: just fooling around again. As I drafted this piece it began to echo the in and out of waves at ocean's edge so I went with that. Photo "Jalama Beach" (8-1-09) 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.