Roswila's Dream & Poetry Realm

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

Saturday, May 11, 2013

COME INTO MY PARLOR (photo) & THE SPELUNKER (dream tanka series) by Roswila



THE SPELUNKER

we carry her eggs
to the lab, though it’s doubtful
that we can save them –
we slip them in a petri dish
and put on the clear cover

the mother cries out
from a corner where she’s been
watching and waiting –
before our eyes she rapidly
morphs into a huge spider

her black legs so long
they bring her head way above
the formica table –
“Don’t shut the door” she commands,
“it’ll scare the plants,” so we don’t

as the baskets of
hanging spider plants relax
she checks on her eggs
“Pick them up, dish and all,
and follow me out” she orders

in the hallway a
dark filing cabinet hulks –
she stands before it
and looking toward her dish of
eggs begins morphing again

still mama spider
but now as thin as a sheet
of inky paper,
she proclaims her intent to
slip into the file cabinet

“You see,” she says
“few problems are as big as
they appear to be
and it’s a rare solution
that’s not been filed away”

like a spelunker
she slides into the deep
crevice of a folder –
somehow we know she’ll surface
having snared a way to save her eggs


[tanka series on a dream of 5-11-13. That visual pun of the spider plants made me giggle. However, I did not think of the name of the plants in the actual dream; I just saw them. Naming the plants in the dreamku deflates the fun of the sudden punning connection I felt on recalling the name of the plants while drafting the dreamku. (The same often happens when explaining a joke or an imagistic poem.) But what is one to do? Writing more of a set up to the pun would still be explaining the joke. ‘tis a challenge I may never find a way to handle in dreamku writing. And it’s more common in my dreams than I tend to reference here. I also think I miss a lot of the puns in dreams. Some of the connections may very well be finer than spider webs and snap at the first motions of wakefulness. BTW, the spider here is for me (among other things) a concrete image of the type of computer program called a spider or web crawler. Another visual pun I only got during the writing. Photo “Come Into My Parlor” 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 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 dreamku is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. A dreamku 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.

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, May 10, 2013

TERNION (photo) & A ROMANCE IN THREE ACTS (dream tanka series) by Roswila


A ROMANCE IN THREE ACTS

Act I

it’s almost as if
I were babysitting Brad
for Angelina
while she’s off with all the kids
shopping and running errands

Brad’s as beautiful
live as on screen and vaguely
flirtatious with me
I enjoy it but know he won’t
follow through nor should he

then I’m star struck again
when Angelina returns
stunning in a new
black and white maternity dress
trailing kids like a mama duck

her jealousy over
Brad pricks my pride, though
it’s almost surreal
he’s so obviously smitten
and deeply committed to her


Act II

to get to their car
we have to climb a steep rise
everyone winds up
crawling, even strangers
headed back to their rides

I’m relieved that for
once I’m not the only one
having this trouble
a strange man hugs me when he
senses this feeling in me

I wait for the big
“Bazinga!” but none’s coming
he’s quite serious
and a mutual attraction
rises surely between us


Act III

Angelina just
won’t let it go and starts
backbiting me
her stage whispers to Brad
stinging me in a hot swarm

though silence now would
surely be golden, I let loose
in a tarnished torrent,
defensive explanations
making my cheeks flush red

their surprise at my
last barrage cools the air:
“And furthermore, if
you absolutely must know, I’m
dating that sweet fool on the hill”**


[ten tanka on a dream of 5-8-13. * “Bazinga!” used like “gotcha” after a joke (I’m revealing my fondness here for the T.V. comedy “The Big Bang Theory” -- one of the main characters uses bazinga). ** A definite reference to the Beatles song “The Fool on the Hill,” as I woke from this dream singing it. And just in case: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are probably best known as movie actors committed (married?) to each other, with a passel of kids. A note on the writing: Someone once asked how I choose the ultimate shape of a dreamku/series. I don't. It evolves as I draft it. However, in the case of those that I break into parts with headings, the dream pretty much demands it (in this case, three acts). That is, there's no clear progression between the dream parts that I can recall. It's almost as if a curtain went down and then came back up on another part of the same dream. Occasionally, I consciously write in a connection to keep the dreamku/series flowing as one piece. But only if it immediately suggests itself to me in the initial drafting. Otherwise, I wind up separating it into distinct sections, as with this dream. Photo “Ternion” 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 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 dreamku is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. A dreamku 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.

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, May 09, 2013

JUST ANOTHER PRETTY FACE (photo) & THE CONTRAPTION (dreamku series) by Roswila



THE CONTRAPTION

that friend from my teens
and I sort through our stuff
so I can pack up –
it’s time for me to move from
this apartment we’ve shared

she hands me a box
of hers: transparent, about
cigarette carton size
but shorter and higher, with
artful lines and a flip-up lid

my puzzlement deepens
when I see she’s taped costume
jewelry of mine
to its bottom “So it won’t
fall out,” she quickly says

as she tells me about
the box it’s clear there’s more
than is apparent
she shows me the exhaust pipe
for built-up carbon dioxide

“Don’t put your hands in
the flow when it starts,” she adds,
“though it’s safe to dump
the run off onto the earth
or into the recyclables”

do I want or need such an odd contraption,
pretty to look at, but such high maintenance


[five tanka capped by a two-liner on a dream of 5-7-13. Photo “Just Another Pretty Face” 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 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 dreamku is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. A dreamku 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.

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.

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

FANNING THE FIRE (photo) & THE BURNING (by Roswila)



THE BURNING

they expect, nay, demand
that she take the lead part
in their newest play –
and she’d not even auditioned,
talk about a cold reading!

but, as always, she
gives them what they want without
a moment’s pause,
while two small sentient fires
back her up from the shadows

all goes well enough
but now, oh no, they demand she
take another role –
again the two small fires
show up to burn behind her

the play’s woodland setting stirred
by the crackling of voice and flame


[three tanka and a two-liner on a dream of 5-7-13. Photo “Fanning the Fire” 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 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 dreamku is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. A dreamku 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.

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, May 07, 2013

LOOKING BOTH WAYS (photo) & ONE WAY OR THE OTHER (dreamku series) by Roswila



ONE WAY OR THE OTHER

the sheet’s gone one way
and my light summer quilt’s
gone the other
an altogether exposing
and annoying arrangement,

like that portentous
dream that suddenly drowned
as I was tossed up
to the bone dry awareness
of this now sleepless night

I think of plate tectonics and schisms, but these
mechanistic symbols don’t hold any water

things have gone sideways one way or the other


[two tanka, a two-liner, and a monoku on a dream of 5-6-13. Photo “Looking Both Ways” 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 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 dreamku is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. A dreamku 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.

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, May 06, 2013

ROLLING IN (photo) & GAME'S END (dreamku series) by Roswila



GAME’S END

the supposedly
indestructible new hotel
begins to tumble
the ocean shoreline on which
it rests assaulted by a storm

she believes she can
prevent further collapse
through her own efforts
a strange man grabs her, curbing
her rush across the soggy sands

“Don’t add your own bones
to be dug through along with
that dark carcass’s,
many are grateful this eye sore’s
time has come ‘round so early”

his words hurt, yet
does that mean they’re also true?
no matter, it’s too late
like the end to a game of pick-
up sticks it’s totally demolished

the moaning of the wind – her accepting sigh


[four tanka capped by a monoku on a dream of 5-5-13. Before I go on about this dream/ku let me stress that I do not so much interpret my dream/ku as explore them. But sometimes a dream/ku yells out for understanding. This is one of them. I initially drafted notes to share here but they are way too long and convoluted. So I’ll simply add these points: This dream/ku both offers advice and expresses anxiety about changes. What I find particularly interesting is that it’s a “new” construct (hotel) created (built) in a liminal space (land, sea and sky beneath a storm), and that the man can be seen as a positive animus figure. Photo “Rolling In” 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 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 dreamku is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. A dreamku 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.

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, May 05, 2013

SWEPT AWAY (photo) & LOST IN TIME (dream tanka series) by Roswila



LOST IN TIME

a new group of friends
has let me join them on a
trip to their home town –
we fly over an ocean
in which a dark boat founders

two women in white
work frantically to keep the
motorboat afloat,
stalled and totally swamped
it lurches and rolls about

we must rescue them,
I think, just as we all wind
up in the chest-high
drink, slogging along toward the beach
from which their home town beckons

maybe it’s all the palms
but their town seems lost in time –
where’s my camera?
relieved to find it, I fervently
hope taking photos is permitted


[four tanka on a dream of 5-4-13. Photo “Swept Away” 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 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 dreamku is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. A dreamku 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.

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.