REBIRTH (photo art) & BEAUTY & BEAST (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

BEAUTY & THE BEAST

for the second or third time recently
I can see that grumpy difficult man
is in a surprisingly sweet mood
it feels so good as he comes up behind me
deftly managing his walker, with a light
tap on my shoulder, and a small
almost radiant hello, that I cannot help
but put my arm through his and continue
along with him -- I huddle close as if
we'd always been friends and ask him
for a favor: when he sees that I myself
am actually in a good mood, would he
comment nicely on it? a good mood
happens so rarely for me these days,
I say, it would help to have it affirmed --
I almost pull myself up short as I hear
myself asking this man of mercurial
moods whom I've always avoided
to actually notice and even talk
to me: this moment has taken
the bit in its teeth!
I give up all the useless tugging
at what I've believed to be reins,
for just who is a beauty and who
a beast in the racing ride
of unfolding moments, anyway?


[free verse poem on a dream of 11-20-13. OK, another I'm having difficulty categorizing. It's not very poetic, yet that Beauty & the Beast reference was not explicit in the dream. I came to that on drafting this poem, not to mention that "bit in its teeth" image. So I'm flopping on the side of "poem" given those metaphors. Even though the entire dream itself without them is a metaphor for all sorts of other things which to my way of thinking should qualify it as a poem. Even the other writing of mine here that I've started calling dream narratives are metaphors -- they are dreams, after all. And then there's the issue of the actual writing: how many metaphors can one write into a dream that is already saturated with them due to its very nature. So, there's always this push/pull between the dream itself and (at least part of) what I understand poetry to be and what I am learning about it. Argh! Words fail me in this struggle. Maybe the real problem is caring too much that others might think that I'm mislabeling my writing. When what I need most to do is to continue to focus on the writing, and in that process learn about dreams and how to write. Photo art "Rebirth" (4-4-13, 12428e) 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....".

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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.