LION IN WAITING (photo) & THE BOSS OF HER (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE BOSS OF HER

her new boss is unreasonable
in the extreme, oppositional
and woundingly sarcastic ...
all the while expecting her
to stand for it as part of the job,
not even deigning to respond
to her emotionally colored comments
(though she must admit she keeps
the emoting to a bare minimum,
given her wont and the provocation)
she then tries a careful speech
about how maybe they could focus
only on the work itself and leave
the cutting commentaries behind
(resisting the urge to point out how
for all his vaunted objectivity,
he clearly takes great pleasure
in this torturing talk from his position
of privilege as boss) ... but what nearly
undermines her new found control?
the recognition she's met this man before,
in fact he never left his executive position
and has been tossing off his mauling
decrees about what he perceives as her
shoddy performance all along ...
out of desperation she'd simply turned
a deaf ear to him until he'd seemed
to fade away, but denial is not dealing ...
she digs into her work, certain she's at least
begun to relate to this roaring, maniacal boss
in a more productive fashion, if not yet
with the steadiness and courage of a lion tamer


[free verse poem on a dream of 12-7-13. Anyone familiar with The Tarot images will probably see why I associate this dream to The Strength card (below is from the Rider/Waite/Smith deck):

BTW, that lion taming image was not explicit in the dream. It came to me as I drafted the poem, and only then when I hit those last three lines. And let me stress, this dream/poem is ultimately about an aspect of myself, not an actual boss. (Though, of course, there were resemblances to former bosses and, more so, to a family member. The models, if you will, from which this aspect of myself has been drawn over the years.)

Photo at top of this post: "Lion in Waiting" (4-4-13 12427e) 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.