BURNING QUESTION (photo art) & WHY IS A CROOKED LETTER (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

WHY IS A CROOKED LETTER

why, oh why, oh why-o
do I keep dreaming about
my years of gainful employment?
I'm well rid of those low
paying, high-demanding,
at best socially oblivious
and at worst cruel situations

even in this dream I know
there's no way I'm going to accept
that position even though as soon
as they read me the job description
it goes right out of my mind
(which is just where I'm sure a job
such as that would have driven me,
out of what little mind I had left)

so why am I so delighted to tell
my friend I've now been offered
a less demanding but still low-
paying job with a former boss,
one of the most (to be kind, even
though she wasn't) oblivious
I'd ever had?

what is there in the human spirit
that wants, maybe even needs,
to feel useful to others?
even for little pay or worse
at a high cost to one's own health
and well-being?

or am I only paying off old debts,
looking to make up for my own
short-comings and failures, still
trying to work out (pun intended)
why I was complicit


[free verse poem on a dream of 10-4-13. Photo "Burning Question" (9-7-11) 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.