IRRUPTION (photo art) & TOO LOVELY A DAY (dream tanka series with two-liner) by Roswila

TOO LOVELY A DAY

she calls to her friend
to follow, then dives off the dock
oh how delightful
to be swimming in a lake,
swimming anywhere, really

oddly enough, though,
there's a bit of a tide that tugs
at her long limbs,
inching her into deep water
where she'd rather not go

she's never fully
trusted lake bottoms and what might
grow there, waiting to
grab her ankles and drag her down
into the garbage strewn depths

and what's this, swimming
lazily toward her like some
latter day Loch Ness
monster, rolling surely along
on a collision course

the tide won't permit
her a change of direction
but back peddling
stops her in place and "Nessie"
sweeps obliviously by

yet the swell of its wake
thrusts her farther out into
the wide sunlit lake
oh no, what's this, diving and
surfacing, diving and surfacing

a huge red creature,
hind quarters serrated
like a horseshoe crab's!
she's got to get back into
the clear shallow water

fear strengthens her stroke
even as resolve calms her,
she adopts the dive
and surface rolling patterns
of the creatures' swimming styles

fear can teach her more from dockside
it's way too lovely a day to go under


[several tanka capped by a two-liner on a dream of 12-14-13. Sigh, here were are, back to water again! Actually this is a rather positive dream. I believe it reflects the space I'm learning to create between myself and my more overwhelming emotions. That I don't have to drown in them to learn from them. There's more to this dream, but this is the most salient point. (BTW, "Nessie" is what the controversial Loch Ness monster is often called. ) Photo art "Irruption" (7-17-10 10004ev5) 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.