THE OFFERING (photo art) & HIGH FLYING (dream haibun) by Roswila

HIGH FLYING

the eight year old girl
sneaks off the star ship before
other passengers
or even crew, determined
to explore on her own

the queen of this strange
planet greets the girl in full
formal regalia:
an ice blue, one story tall,
ballooning silk gown

the girl laughs lightly
at the pairs of men arrayed
by the gown's long seams
to pull its weight along
beneath the ensconced queen

she's further amused
when the queen extends a hand
down to her for shaking
undaunted by the distance
the girl steps up to the gown's hem:

overshadowed seed
sprouts toward a high-flown blossom
winds begin to stir


[tanka series capped by a dreamku on a dream of 12-23-13. I'm calling this a "dream haibun" because that's what came to me as a I woke up and began to shape it in my mind. Generally speaking, a haibun is a prose paragraph, concluding with a haiku that reiterates and/or extends the prose. In this case, I wrote that ending dreamku as a haiku, i.e. realistically. As if I were seeing that scene in one of our gardens here where I live. Of course, haiku are about an actual moment, but then again, isn't a moment of imagining also actual? To complicate this more, that closing haiku is the metaphor I discovered on waking for the ending dream image of the girl stepping up to the queen's hem. Maybe I needed to ground that star travelling story in familiar territory? Especially as both the star ship girl and the high-flown queen are aspects of myself. Photo art "The Offering" (4-25-12 11794ev8) by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS):

But first, a request: please let me know of any typos or other sorts of blunders in my posts. As my eyes age I'm finding more mistakes are creeping into what I put up here no matter how many times I proof it all. Thanks for any help!

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.