EN GLACE (photo) & THE FROZEN ROSE (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE FROZEN ROSE

it's her turn to wait in the conference
room at the glossy wood table
nearly filling the cold empty space

as he did with each of the other women
before her, a man sits also, a well-
trained and seasoned soldier in casual
civilian garb that disguises his mission
as a personal protector

and like each previous woman she
endures her wait in nauseating fear
that the serial assaulter will return
to finish his attack

an observer might well wonder
at her guard's relaxed pose --
doesn't he know she, too, is armed?
a knife secreted up a tattered sleeve
and her mental balance teetering

evidence of both knife and her fragility
carved by her in the highly polished
table top between them:

a fist sized spiral seeming to spin in,
then out, then in again, glistening
like a rose frozen in time


[free verse poem on a dream of 8-21-13. Photo "En Glace" (8-2-10) by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, monoku, free verse, etc. -- 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 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 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). This pretty much applies to free verse dream poems as well.

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....".

* * * *

‘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.

LEARNING CURVE (photo) & THE LIE (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE LIE

you've heard of the Big Lie*
well, it looks like some trifling trespass
next to this huge old dilly

no one even knows how it got put over
so widely and thoroughly to begin with
to become such an eyesore in our hindsight
that we can look at it now only through
an uncertain laughter

not even our father with his lyrically
lying tongue could have dreamed up
this gargantuan lie

nor could he have spread it like a warm
but ultimately suffocating blanket
his penchant for self-mockery keeping
his untruths cutting and close to home

and worse yet we still don't even know
what this Brobdingnagian lie actually was!

we only feel it by its absence, dark like
an empty field where invasive grasses once
strangled their ways to dominance, now
stripped bare awaiting the seeds of native
flora on wind and wing


[free verse poem on a dream of 8-22-13. *The expression the "Big Lie" was coined by Adolf Hitler about the use of a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously..." (from wikipedia online). Photo "Learning Curve" (8-22-09) 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 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.

INCLUSION (photo) & DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH (dream tanka series) by Roswila

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

whether she likes it
or not that's the way of
this big business
the beauty of it all places
a far distant second to profit

a diamond's rare cut
and inclusion free color
make sellers wealthy
but barely register on eyes
looking for the next killing

"This is a huge deal,"
he'd said, "I've got a massive
diamond in the rough
and you've got that highly
skilled cutter at your behest"

yes, this is the way ...
yet even as they seal the deal
a sadness grips her
as when a cutter's first tap ends
the mystery of a raw diamond


[four tanka on a dream of 8-21-13. Photo "Inclusion" (4-25-12) 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 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.

LESSON IN BLACK & WHITE (photo) & THE OLD BLACK & WHITE TABBY (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE OLD BLACK AND WHITE TABBY

she balances the big old black and white tabby
that she's just adopted in her arms, along with
an aluminum pie plate of food for him

her own lunch break's over and she's headed
back to the office through the irritating crush
of shoppers and workers on this raucous
mid-town city sidewalk

she worries this is not enough of a meal for her
new cat, carefully setting the cat and plate down
to buy one more small serving

the old striped tabby sees his chance, takes
the pie plate in his teeth, and absconds with it
zig-zagging quickly between the legs
of startled pedestrians

"Blast it all!" she thinks, "Even if I had the time
my bad knees won't permit my chasing down
that wretch, especially in this crowd!"

just as she accepts her loss and heads to take
the long elevator ride back up to her thankless
job, the cat sans pie plate, appears quietly
at her feet, as if waiting to be picked up

she lifts him into her embrace, grateful as much
that she won't have to live with deserting him
on these uncertain streets, as for his
apparent budding attachment to her

he's quite an armful, this large old tabby, even
without a plate of food to juggle, but harder
to grasp is the inquiry that rises along with
the elevator to the 18th floor:

"Why I am back here on this awful job, in this
dizzying dirty city, this personal purgatory
I'd thought I'd escaped?"

the cat wiggles gently in her arms, as if
he were settling in for a long ride


[free verse poem on a dream of 8-20-13. Photo "Lesson in Black & White" by Roswila (8-4-13)]

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 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.

LOCKSTEP (photo) & WITHOUT END (free verse deam poem) by Roswila

WITHOUT END

the two women chase each other
up and down the dark outside staircase
in the even darker night -- their only
focus murder, each of the other

one keeps failing to behead,
her strokes like a metronome setting
the beat and pace of this silent scenario

the other tries for stabbing, her lunge
missing each time in a sharp edged
burst of shadows

watching them rise and fall against
the backdrop of a star-prickled sky
I wonder what fuels this spiraling
rage or if hollow habit has long since
become their lethal Puppet Master

like a run-on sentence with no period
my inquiry hangs, stamped
on the sere night air


[free verse poem on a dream of 8-19-13. Photo "Lockstep" 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 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.

A SUNSET WALK (photo) & [untitled] (dream tanka) by Roswila

they move into their
new home at a road’s long end
surrounded by woods
the seller had not disclosed
its distance from the familiar


[re-post of a dream tanka from September of 2008. This was dreamed/written barely nine months after I'd moved here to south central California from my life-long home in New York City. And, yes, it's clearly about how different my "objective" life was (still is) from the one I had in NYC. However, it was also about the life of the psyche, which is what makes it so appropriate to post today. In a prospective way, that is. As I've certainly not more than oh-so-briefly glimpsed the possibility of a "new home" at the end of this twisting, already long road. Yet it calls me on. And I'd be even more lost without that vague image. By the way, though my physical house/geographical setting had drastically changed back then, to my sadness I eventually found that not much had changed inside myself nor did I know the rest as well as I thought I did. That's the road of discovery I've been on now for a few years. Photo "A Sunset Walk" 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 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.