SPEAKING OUT (photo art) & THE RIGHT THING (six dream tanka w/two liner) by Roswila

THE RIGHT THING

she hands the baby
to me, surprisingly he's
only a large head
asking lightly for something
I can't quite understand

as I lean closer
to hear him, she gives me
a small bag saying
"This is what he's requesting,
he wants to wear his body"

from the bag I lift
two electronic networks
of thin white plastic
that serve as his nervous system
when properly assembled

I get right to work,
carefully applying these
long gummed front and back
systems to each other so
the baby-head can connect

as I concentrate
she paces and fumes: "I can't
believe this is not
yet legal ... yeah, the case
is still before the judges,

it seems what matters
most is how acutely strange
the arrangement is
and not that the baby-head
experiences a body"

but I have no doubt this is the right thing to do
and connect the networks to the happy baby-head


[six tanka capped by a two-liner on a dream of 11-19-13. This is the second dream this year in which a baby-head image has appeared. (Here's a link to the first one.) Both dreams do largely address proper self-parenting, especially hearing what one needs. That these babies have no bodies? Highly appropriate for someone who's had tremendous (pun intended) body issues all her life. And also not surprising I'd have this dream now as I'm losing weight (33 lbs. to date) while wrestling with fully and deeply hearing my body's needs. Not to mention I live a great deal of the time in my head. Always have. Thing is, though, before age and arthritis I did a lot of that thinking while hiking. It was all too easy to give up on being physical that way when pain entered the picture, and stay glued to my computer chair. There's a lot more in this dream but I'll leave it at this. Photo art "Speaking Out" (11-9-13, 070v6) 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 now. 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.