IT'S A GIRL! (photo) & GOING & COMING (two dreamku series) by Roswila

GOING & COMING

Dream One

first, a toddler's playpen,
then, a small grey haired monkey
with a friendly face,
then, a human infant bounces
in for their usual playdate

but there'll be no more
wrestling or toys tossed around,
the sweet old monkey's
dying, but still it calmly
radiates affection

a much subdued babe
curls up against the soft monkey:
their Mona Lisa smiles


Dream Two

the sense of danger
that surrounded the pregnancy
pops when she gives birth
yes! and it's a perfect girl!
relief becomes celebration

a friend approaches
and wants to know why I'm staring
"Look at the father,
I say, "he's giving the giggling
infant her first hair cut"

I point out how he
carefully checks each strand against
a small wood ruler,
so that her shiny dark blonde
tresses will be neat and trim

"And she already shows a sense of humor,"
I add silently, "she'll need it to measure up"


[two dreamku series written on two separate dreams of 6-27-13. As I said here yesterday, I'd thought this post would wind up in free verse, but when I sat down to actually write about the dreams they came out in dreamku form. Not a clue as to why, just an urging at a feeling level. I've had several baby dreams recently. But these two are the first in which the baby is healthy, and present (as opposed to lost in some way). Guess that's progress. The connecting thread between the two dreams is sadness. The first has a level of comfort to it, though, and a naturalness. While the second is about the discomfort of needing to "measure up," of trying to meet other's standards. I woke up singing a line from an old Beatle's song "Baby you can drive my car..." LOL! But it can also be interpreted somewhat seriously as who/what is driving a car in my dreams often indicates what part of me is controlling my behavior. Photo "It's A Girl!" 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.

You may also note in any further reading on dreamku you may do, that in the beginning I stressed "showing, not telling." However, that has been changing for some time now. I now tend to "show" (the dream narrative) and cap if off with a "tell" (some reaction and/or insight I've had to the dream as I was writing about it).

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 MERMAID'S LAMENT (photo) & CHASING AFTER FAIRY DUST (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

CHASING AFTER FAIRY DUST

why is she after him again
she cannot understand the fuss
about his handsome face, and doesn't
even like him all that much

but here she is again attempting
to hook him with assistance,
while he, to his credit, tactfully
points out the inconsistent
undertone in her offer to help

so why, oh why, does she want
to connect with him? to keep chasing
after what she really doesn't want?

as if a childlike self eggs her on
insisting that his luck and charm will
rub off on her like fairy dust, if
she can get up close enough
and (oh so) personal


[free verse dream poem on a dream of 6-26-13. OK, after that lengthy comment in my previous post on the rarity of choosing the free verse form to write about my dreams in, here's another free verse dream poem. And I suspect the one I have now from last night on the back burner may also turn out to be in free verse form. As I was working on the one above last night I was enjoying the challenge and therein may lie the real reason I'm into free verse right now. Boredom. I've gotten all too accustomed to whipping out dreams in the dreamku style (and the related and combined forms thereof). Lazy almost. That is, I think that childlike self referenced above is also egging me on to take on more challenges in writing again. (In that childlike conception, there's a yearning for new stuff, thank you very much.) I've been feeling similarly with respect to editing my photos for some time now. I'd thought once I had Photoshop Elements that would change, and it did very briefly. But in just the past few days I've found myself, well, bored with my usual ways of going about editing. Guess I really do need to read that Photoshop book a friend bought me, don't I? Hope that it all doesn't turn out to be just chasing after more fairy dust, both in writing and photo work. I read somewhere that the vague dissatisfaction one may feel -- and this one does -- on finishing a creative effort, contains the seed of the next work. Sigh. Photo "The Mermaid's Lament" 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.

You may also note in any further reading on dreamku you may do, that in the beginning I stressed "showing, not telling." However, that has been changing for some time now. I now tend to "show" (the dream narrative) and cap if off with a "tell" (some reaction and/or insight I've had to the dream as I was writing about it).

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.

DON'T FADE AWAY (photo) & RECALLING THE QUEENS (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

RECALLING THE QUEENS

four women, Queens if you will
(and even if you won't), present
one by one for viewing

the first Queen I no longer recall after
the intense impact of the second, and then
after waiting endlessly for the third ...
but I digress ...

the second Queen is dark-haired,
middle-aged, and somehow I know
wields the most independent and bloody
mind of the four

the third wears an intricate layering
of white seed pearls covering her chest
from throat to the swell of her breasts,
by far the most Queenly of them all

the fourth almost eludes recall along
with the first but I catch Her Majesty
by a brief glimpse of her small waist,
pinched even smaller by a Tudor style
gown of sleek gray silk

now, pray tell, what am I supposed to do
with these images? am I to believe that I,
like Henry the 8th before me, beheaded
Queen after Queen as she rose
to an inconvenient prominence

or more likely, that each just faded away
for lack of support into the amorphous
deep, there to await a chance to resurface
and finally live out a life in the light


[free verse poem on a dream of 6-25-13. Since I almost always write about dreams in some formal way (either dreamku, monoku, tanka, two-liner or some combination thereof) I thought I should comment on why I once in a while choose to write in free verse form. Well, I can't really say why. It's just a gut feeling as I first set pen to paper. (I rarely write my first draft on the computer.) Something urges a less formally structured approach. Note that I say "less...structured." I know some folk think of free verse as totally without formal requirements. Not so for me. Any poem, free verse or even the most stream of consciousness type of writing, urges some sort of organization as I go along. In free verse writing, a rhythm will suggest itself and demand to be honored, line length will push for balancing by eye, a desire to break lines where they encourage the flow of a reader's attention in a particular way will rise, and so on. In fact, I find free verse harder to write in than any of the forms I use when writing dreamku. I have fewer choices to make in the more structured dreamku forms. The form, line length, etc., are already determined. But in free verse, I'm faced with many, many choices that have to be tried out, then accepted or rejected, and worked on some more. Maybe it's exactly that plethora of possibilities that were necessary to bring this dream poem through in a satisfactory way. Or maybe I simply needed to work in a different way when I drafted this dream poem yesterday. Hm, it may just be that I needed to taste the freedom of making those choices. One more thing: The Queen of Swords in The Tarot deck has been an important card to me for some time now. I have a Queen of Swords from four different decks on a sheet on my wall right now. What's interesting to note is that in Tarot lore the Queen of Swords is one who can do some beheading. She's said at one level to "behead over rational thought." She's also been compared to Judith in the Bible, who beheaded the evil invader Holofernes. So although I chose to leave out these associations to the dream as the by far stronger one is to Henry the 8th's wives, they are there informing this dream/poem, and especially the second Queen. Photo "Don't Fade 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.

You may also note in any further reading on dreamku you may do, that in the beginning I stressed "showing, not telling." However, that has been changing for some time now. I now tend to "show" (the dream narrative) and cap if off with a "tell" (some reaction and/or insight I've had to the dream as I was writing about it).

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.

NO GOING BACK (photo) & HAUNTS (dreamku series) by Roswila

HAUNTS

both of her dearest friends
(one deceased as she notes even
through the poor lighting)
still live with her rent free
and for how long now?

and that double door
her parents promised to construct
to close off their rooms?
still no further along than
some holes drilled in the floor

she can’t believe this!
after all this time and she still
isn’t getting what’s hers

and what apartment
is this, anyway, she mumbles,
turning in circles
checking out its various
cubicles and odd angles

oh my, she hisses on
a quick intake of breath –
she’s lived elsewhere
alone for many years now! but
her relief is painfully short lived

nothing’s really changed at all
the haunts still haven’t moved out


[several tanka with one dreamku, capped by a two-liner on a dream of 4-25-13. I recall that this two month old dream was vaguely lucid (i.e. knowing one is dreaming while one is dreaming) when I realized one friend was deceased, and that I've "lived elsewhere...for years now" and that "nothing's really changed." Photo "No Going Back" 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.

You may also note in any further reading on dreamku you may do, that in the beginning I stressed "showing, not telling." However, that has been changing for some time now. I now tend to "show" (the dream narrative) and cap if off with a "tell" (some reaction and/or insight I've had to the dream as I was writing about it).

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.

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES (photo) & MORE THE FOOL (dreamku series) by Roswila

MORE THE FOOL

so (I carefully
ask of my young blonde lover)
why did you invite
this dark stranger into our bed
with no warning to me at all

and now he likes me,
whereas all I get from you
are cold shoulders
to ask my questions of
as you feign a deep sleep

how can I trust
this charming new fellow?
after all, I thought
I knew you well enough
to relax into your caring

more the fool I (say
I) the more things change the more
they stay the same


[three tanka capped by a dreamku on a dream of 6-23-13. Photo "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" 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.

You may also note in any further reading on dreamku you may do, that in the beginning I stressed "showing, not telling." However, that has been changing for some time now. I now tend to "show" (the dream narrative) and cap if off with a "tell" (some reaction and/or insight I've had to the dream as I was writing about it).

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.