AS ABOVE, SO BELOW (photo) & OVERHEAD (dreamku series) by Roswila

OVERHEAD

“No, don’t,” I rush up
and try to stop him from
opening the latch –
I know what’s beyond this small
door in our home’s white ceiling

he’ll over-react
drawing attention to our
vulnerability,
to this openness to attack
or burglary right overhead

and all that stuff stashed
in the corridors beyond
there’ll be such a fuss
just when things have grown peaceful
he had to notice this little door

in the time it takes for him to reach the latch
I’ve thought of a dozen ways to secure it

an exasperated sigh slips out of me, why try
to close the barn door—the horse has escaped


[three tanka capped by a pair of two-liners on a dream of 2-22-13. By the way, the other meaning for “overhead” – related to the expenses of running a business – could also apply here. Especially if one understands “business” as applied to someone’s personal concerns. Photo “As Above, So Below" 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.

MOTLEY MUSTER (photo) & THE COLLECTOR (dreamku series) by Roswila

THE COLLECTOR

she’s been collecting
all the stuff I throw out like
a squirrel does nuts
her small unlit room stacked with
sundries and racks of clothing

all unwanted and
only vaguely familiar
except a flower
print blouse: should I retrieve it
from this crowded oblivion

I leave it hanging
and reach to explore a pile
of old bed linens
ooops! she’s beneath them asleep
and my touch wakes her right up

I’m uninvited
and she’s home way too early
neither’s a wrong move
but her puzzled look says
what we’re each thinking:

yes, I recognize
you – but just what do you think
you’re doing here now


[four tanka with a capping dreamku on a dream of 2-20-13. Photo “Motley Muster” 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.

POISED FOR FLIGHT (photo) & THE TELEPATH (dreamku series) by Roswila

THE TELEPATH

she’s ambivalent
does she want him to hear
the thoughts she’s buried

he’s a journalist
investigating the group that’s
reshaping her beliefs
he could be big trouble but
trouble could be what she needs

so she releases
her thoughts at full volume –
even the head blind*
within a few block’s radius
must have heard that last blast

he approaches her
gingerly, as if she were
a trapped wild bird
the look in his eyes clearly
saying that he wants to help

equally clear, he knows she’s ambivalent
an open mind can be a frightening freedom


[a dreamku and three tanka capped by a two-liner. *Head blind = someone who has no ability at all to receive or send telepathically, a term "she" thought in the dream that I once read in a science fiction or fantasy book. Photo “Poised for Flight” 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.

THE SNARL (photo) & FAMILY DYNAMICS (dreamku series) by Roswila

FAMILY DYNAMICS

the fearful toddler
cries out in the night for help
“A man with a gun”
she wails, “he’s standing right here,
oh please, please come get me!”

I’m all but certain
it’s one of her nightmares
and rush to calm her,
hoping to shield her from her
father’s usual irritation

but there a shadowy
figure stands with a pistol –
I turn too late to
warn her father away, and
we’re both held at bay by the gun

then the girl’s older
sister steps into the picture
she backs up the gunman:
a teen and her boyfriend on a
lark? or in a serious plot?

all I know is child, father, and I need rescue
but the question still remains from what?


[four tanka and a capping two-liner on a dream of 2-19-13. I’m not clear yet on what dynamics this dream is addressing. Only that something about it all feels very familiar, if couched in unfamiliar terms. Maybe a better word than “couched” would be “compressed.” Ah, yes, this dream is like a zip file that I have to find the proper program with which to open it. (Almost all dreams are, to me, like zip files. And my dreamku wind up addressing only one or two major “files” among those packed in any one dream. It’s rare that I feel a dream goes no further than one level or one association. And those are usually very small dreams that are probably fragments of forgotten larger ones, or silly “thinking” ones in which I’m playing around with words and such.] Photo “The Snarl” 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.

TASTING THE WIND (sketch) & SOON ENOUGH (dreamku series) by Roswila

SOON ENOUGH

our tormentors
do not know what only my friend
and I recognize:
our wooden horse, layered
with looping words, is not fake

and soon enough it
will breathe, life will surge through
its black and white flanks
no longer a hobby horse
or nickel ride for some child

but our way into
the land of the truly alive
astride its hot back


[two tanka and a dreamku on a dream of 2-18-13. An odd little dream, filled with fantasy and/or reality -- which is which depends on how one defines those terms. And that sensuality at the end, well, all in all a fun ride, leaving some thought provoking ripples. Image: “Tasting the Wind,” an old black ink/white paper sketch just color-inverted for this post, 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.

RAINBOW'S END (photo) & ON BEING AN INTROVERTED INTUITIVE FEELER (by Roswila)

ON BEING AN INTROVERTED INTUITIVE FEELER

her taste in music’s
even different from
everyone else’s
and so what if a painter’s work
fits no particular genre?

her parameters
to which something joyful docks
lie inside herself
the web of “shoulds” connecting
the crowd just doesn’t stick to her

and her attempts to
share joy go unnoticed, or judged
as unenlightened
but, never say die, she tries to
figure out how she might fit in

at the end of the day
she takes home her lonely joy
in one thing she’s bought:
a small wooden chest of drawers,
distressed by years of hard use

layers of paint flake revealing here and there rainbows


[four tanka with a capping monoku on a dream of 2-17-13. The title is what the dream boils down to for me. It’s one of the Jungian personality types, supposedly the least common. I’ve tested out as an introverted intuitive feeler several times over the years. I don’t take a whole lot of stock in these sorts of personality quizzes and analyses, but in some ways they do seem to hit the mark. Here’s a lengthy description of this type, which still comes in many ways, way too close for comfort: INFJ type. (That fourth aspect, Judging, is one of several possible qualities added to Jung’s work by others, at least as far as I know. I do not claim to be an expert on Jung’s work or on this additional aspect. But will say I have not found this Judging aspect a clarifying addition, which is why I do not include it in my title.) Photo “Rainbow’s End” 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.

A DIFFERENT SLANT (photo) & ON WARMTH & CHAFF (dream tanka series) by Roswila

ON WARMTH AND CHAFF

Ah, the old lady
says to me, you like that tall
handsome one, don’t you?
go for it honey, she adds,
don’t let your weight stop you

in one second’s beat
I feel annoyed at these
assumptions about
what I feel and what it’s like
to be more than Rubenesque

but as close to that
as a lightning flash climbing
the sky I can sense
her sincere desire to help,
and also to be quick about it

I let her genuine
attempt at help warm me,
but release the hit
and run opinions quickly
like so much chaff in the wind


[four tanka on a dream of 2-16-13. I’ve been struggling to stay aware of the sort of distinction being made in that last tanka for a long time. Its point last night about an inner separating process is more than usually timely and well-taken. I do hope to get to the place in which it happens as quickly – almost automatically – as it did in the dream. Photo “A Different Slant” 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.