Roswila's Dream & Poetry Realm

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

Saturday, February 09, 2013

SPINNING OUT (photo) & [untitled] (old dreamku) by Roswila



the whirling seal
from beneath the frozen sea
joy or insanity


[dreamku written in April of 2007 using the central image from an old lengthy free verse dream-based poem written many years previous. Photo "Spinning Out" by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, and monoku -- 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 understand or interpret 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.

For more in-depth exploration:

-- 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 other blogs: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

Friday, February 08, 2013

ON THE LOOKOUT (photo) & [untitled] (non-dream haiku) by Roswila



a cat at the window
fog on the mountains
the same gray


[a regular (i.e., non dream) haiku written in February 2013. Photo “On The Lookout” by Roswila, from December of 2010]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, and monoku -- 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 understand or interpret 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.

For more in-depth exploration:

-- 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 other blogs: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

Thursday, February 07, 2013

THE WAY OUT IS THROUGH (photo) & THE EBONY BABE (dreamku series) by Roswila



THE EBONY BABE

the puppy’s obese
so much so his black head and legs
can barely be seen
yet he easily out-
distances his mother

she follows in his
wobbly wake, filled with aching
concern for his well-
being, while she navigates
the dusty rock strewn path

at last she catches
up to her rotund progeny
but only in time
to see him clamber into
a fresh tunnel in the dark earth

what led him to this
frightening passage, and why
did he go along

she squelches a panic that he might get stuck
there’s no following – her ebony babe’s on his own


[three tanka and a dreamku capped by a two-liner on a dream of 2-5-13. I was most struck by a sense in the dream that the puppy wasn’t just black, but ebony and shiny like a stone. Of course, ebony’s not a stone but wood. However, I googled “ebony stone” anyway out of curiosity. I was not at all surprised to see in notes about a particular novel that “ebony stone” references “the traditional first stage of the Alchemical work, the nigredo/blackening. This stage represents decomposition, and reduction of matter to the 'prima materia' from which it came. This stage is traditionally associated with death and rebirth…” So I googled “nigredo” and was reminded that “[i]n analytical psychology, … [nigredo] became a metaphor ‘for the dark night of the soul, when an individual confronts the shadow within.’…[Nigredo] could be described as a moment of maximum despair that is a prerequisite to personal development.” This dream was after having done a Tarot reading for myself earlier that evening in which for the first time I fully owned an ancient, difficult, rather encompassing aspect of myself. At first I reeled; I’d not expected the answer I’d gotten. Especially as I’d asked similar questions many times over the years and the answers, I can now see, had always “protected” me from this reality. But now apparently it’s time. And that reminds me of the repeated phrase in one section of T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Wasteland” -- HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME. And probably apropos of nothing, there’s a Tarot reading earlier in the poem. Anyway, I think my recent Tarot reading and the dream/ku above are both saying for me to hurry, that it’s time. Photo “The Way Out Is Through” by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, and monoku -- 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 understand or interpret 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.

For more in-depth exploration:

-- 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 other blogs: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

IN THE CENTER RING (photo) & A LAUGHING MINIATURE (dream tanka series) by Roswila



A LAUGHING MINIATURE

that long ago friend-
cum-roommate-cum enemy
hangs around,
literally! she’s swinging
on the middle binder ring

all three rings are open
awaiting peter pan patches
for torn hole punches
in the record pages that
crowd the old binder

I’m just too lazy
to take the pages out and
paste the patches on
so I’ve been slipping peter
pans over the open rings,

down to the ripped holes –
while she swings like a Cirque du
Soleil performer,
a laughing miniature,
and deftly avoids getting pasted


[four tanka on a dream of 2-4-13. I don't know how many other folk have actually done just this out of laziness, rather than removing a page to put on the reinforcing patches. (I have, in years long past.) But I doubt any who have, also had a "frenemy" swinging merrily from one of the binder rings! I just googled to see if the brand Peter Pan Patches is still around. Couldn't find any reference at all. Hope my memory isn't steering me totally astray on that brand name. But even if it is, it still has meaning to me as it was the brand name in the dream. Photo “In the Center Ring” by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, and monoku -- 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 understand or interpret 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.

For more in-depth exploration:

-- 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 other blogs: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

Monday, February 04, 2013

MAKING A SPLASH (photo) & LIFE AT THE RIM (dreamku series) by Roswila



LIFE AT THE RIM

the star-faring ship
crashes in the dark water
just after take off –
we scramble for the hatches
and escape the sinking ship

the only life raft,
though huge, can’t hold everyone
jam packed it slowly
floats into a tunnel as
someone says “Where’s Patricia?”

from my dog-paddling
place in the water at the
back I say loudly
“I think I can keep up
if you can’t fit me aboard”

the raft’s rim is cold and slippery but I welcome
holding on now and then to rest my arms and legs


[three tanka capped by a two-liner on a dream of 2-4-13. Water, again, and what a weird way to be “in the swim of things.” Actually, it’s a rather fitting metaphor for my emotional experience during much of my life. Photo “Making A Splash” by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, and monoku -- 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 understand or interpret 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.

For more in-depth exploration:

-- 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 other blogs: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

Sunday, February 03, 2013

WHAT WILL BE WRITTEN (photo) & [untitled] (old dream tanka) by Roswila



difficult days at
year's end mute dream memory
a vague sense of halls
and dividers standing tall
gratitude that what is, is


[a tanka dreamed/written at the end of 2008. I was going to write a tanka about not recalling dreams recently when I remembered this old one. One I’d write today would have different vague dream fragments in it, but the overall sense would be the same. I.e, what little I’ve retained of dreams over the past couple of weeks has been full of people interactions (actual and imagined, living and deceased), and I've been going to sleep reviewing my gratitude list. It’s all too easy to go into sleep agitated by the day’s difficulties and forgetting all that’s good. Photo “What Will Be Written” by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, and monoku -- 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 understand or interpret 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.

For more in-depth exploration:

-- 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 other blogs: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.