MOVE OVER! (photo art) & THE EXCUSE ARTIST & THE OPPORTUNIST (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE EXCUSE ARTIST & THE OPPORTUNIST

she feels a body slide into bed behind her,
inviting deep-throated mumbling says
its a male -- the heat rising off the expanse
of his bare skin (hoo boy, he's totally nude)
stirs her deeply in both memory
and the moment

but who is he? no one surely that she knows,
-- this hot song of courting has not come
around in ages, nor has she sought it --
just as she's about to make the turn about
to see his face she realizes who he is,
that young man she'd been involved
with decades back, who's many years
her junior ...

no this cannot work! she makes it clear
that he should leave her wrinkled sheets,
and starts to explain: the difference of 20
years in their ages is more disturbing
now that she is white-haired and quite
arthritic (can he get the picture, even
in the dark?) and they haven't even
spoken in decades, and ... and ... and ...

but before she can finish he jumps up,
his feet slapping on the cold linoleum floor
as he rushes to embrace his current belle
on the other side of the room (where it
seems she's been waiting all along!)
as if to say "No sweat, I'm only after
what I can get, and easily at that"


[free verse poem on a dream of 11-29-13. Photo art "Move Over" (1-25-10, 19229ev2) by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, monoku, free verse, dream narratives -- 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 or narrative 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. I now tend to "show" (the dream story) 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 also pretty much applies to my free verse dream poems as well. As to what I have begun calling dream narratives, they are a different animal, probably most akin to prose poems.

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....".

* * * *

‘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.