Roswila's Dream & Poetry Realm

SEE ALSO: TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT (photos, realistic to abstract)

Monday, November 25, 2013

WITNESS (photo art) & ALL IN BLACK (dreamku series) by Roswila


ALL IN BLACK

I cab with a friend
to do my Christmas shopping
a homeless teen dressed
all in black rapidly births
her baby in the back seat,

unremarkable to all of us in the taxi,
but warmly familiar to the stirring dreamer ...

a strange woman garbed
in a black robe fills a bathtub
she blocks my access
to the water, keeping the end
where I stand dry as a bone

I pass a bowl to her requesting water
she fills it, sloshing the contents back at me

and so it goes, bowl by bowl, but better than none


[two tankas, each capped by a two-liner, and all topped by a monoku, on a dream of 11-24-13. Yes, black is associated with death, but in dream work it is also associated with the unconscious and with something new emerging. And that familiarity of the first scenario? I realized on drafting this writing that it's the resemblance to the story of Christ's birth. Not that I'm expecting (pun intended) a sacred birth, but it's certainly the season for that sort of imagery. And in Jungian archetypal psychology there is an image called the spiritual child which, if I recall correctly, symbolizes the Self. The Self signifying the unification of the conscious and unconscious, and representing the psyche as a whole. I've had what I believe to be brief brushes with the Self archetype many times in dreams. Oh, and that bowl in the closing line? I understand symbols/images in the Jungian sense -- as vessels into which we pour our unconscious contents (i.e., the vessel gives them a graspable shape of some sort). And, most definitely, image by image is how it goes for me, no matter it makes me a little impatient at times for a grand and total awakening. Though I imagine that could be overwhelming, a tsunami of sorts. BTW, that "stirring dreamer" phrase references a very brief, vaguely lucid reaction to the cab scene, before the bathtub part of the dream. Photo art "Witness" (9-2-09, 6433v2) 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.

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