ONE TOO MANY TWISTS (photo art) & ENCEINTE (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

ENCEINTE

I'm pregnant
maybe a week or two along
it's pleasant to muse
over this realization
as I lightly rub
just below my waist
my wool gathering interrupted
when I hear from a long estranged
friend who's also enceinte this late in life
she seems to feel this odd coincidence
can effect repair despite the time
and distance between us but it just
pinches awkwardly at our past
another twist in our hopeless
friendship knot


[free verse poem on a dream of 11-4-13. "Enceinte" = pregnant (French). Photo art "One Too Many Twists" (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.

THE ALCHEMIST (photo art) & TEMPERANCE (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

TEMPERANCE

the bright white ladder against
the white of the beach house
clapboard wall nearly blinds me
in the noon sun as I make
this taboo climb to my friend's
bedroom window, while the light
on my shoulders -- bent to hauling
and balancing up the ladder -- weighs
on me both warm and wet
I pause and glance back:
the Tarot scene of "Temperance"
lives in the air above the unusually
still sea, as if this sky-wide angel
forever consumed by the task
of pouring water into water
and back up again, without
a break or drip, eclipses
any other worldly turbulence --
I wryly mumble "As if I needed
to be reminded this is a difficult
path I'm on," and turn back
to the climb thinking any scene
with an angel in it can't be all
that bad, but then again, enough
of symbols and analysis ... one hand,
one foot ... grip, release, grip ...
the window ledge nears ...
the challenge in my hands
at this moment ... at any moment
more than enough

[free verse poem on a dream of 11-4-13. Another Tarot dream. Seems I'm starting to make up for the years in which they were quite a rarity. I remember reading somewhere that Temperance's path on the Tree of Life (from Netzach to Tiphareth) is one of the hardest. (Tiphareth, by the way, is sometimes called the "heart" of the Tree.) Here's Temperance in the Rider/Waite/Smith deck:

The photo at the top of this post is one of mine. It's titled "The Alchemist" (10-5-09) and has been posted as one of my Found Tarot cards as a version of Temperance. (An alchemical process is sometimes seen as represented in Temperance.) And C.G. Jung wrote about the symbolism of alchemy as being intimately related to the psychoanalytical process. One last link, to another photo of mine in which I see Temperance, even more so than in "The Alchemist" above.]

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.

A CLEAN SLATE (photo) & IN THE FLOWERING BOWER (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

IN THE FLOWERING BOWER

and so, the thinking dream continues,
there's no fixed self at all, no "I"
of predictable edges and totally known
depths and heights and duration

it's like The Magician in The Tarot,
one's self being a constantly emptying
and filling table in the midst
of the ongoing seasons
of a flowering bower

and opening to this changeability,
embracing whatever it puts
on the table, is an act of magic,
of simultaneous creation and destruction
and creation again, and ever again

a mysterious alchemy
afroth with the glitter
and shadows we once
would have reified


[free verse poem on a dream of 11-3-13. Here's the link to my Found Tarot post describing why I see the above photo as a version of The Magician card. (You may note that I have managed since posting it back then to my Tarot blog, to bring out that rainbow effect a bit.) And here's a more traditional version of The Magician (from the Rider/Waite/Smith deck):

As to the dream: It was not an over-voice talking (as I do occasionally experience in dreams) or some other character/object speaking, it was "I" thinking this all out in my sleep. The dream had no sense of location or visual content, other than an endless darkness, and "I" had no sense of body or emotion. An emotional thought of "Oh, wow, a Tarot dream!" only entered as I fully woke and recalled the dream. I have had a totally thinking dream or two in the past. But usually any sense "I" am thinking in a dream is within the context of a larger more detailed dream (such as when I have written a haiku in a dream coming out of the dream's images). A last point, in the dream it was on "seeing" the word "I" that I thought of The Magician card, whose number is a roman numeral one, or I. Photo "A Clean Slate" (8-2-10), a/k/a The Magician, 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.

THE INQUIRY (photo art) & TRUE COLORS (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

TRUE COLORS*

like a well-plotted and directed
James Bond movie the retrieval
of the precious stolen object
plays out exactly as planned

the actress hired at the last minute
by the leader of the raid as his partner
in the high-class re-robbery
makes the grade and then some,
her performance spot on
as a European head of state

when all fakery's dropped
and the reclaiming raiders finally
breach the high wire fence
of the thieves' compound,
victory lights the midnight sky
as surely as lightning
through the sudden downpour

the actress stands in her sodden
trench coat laughing, "I knew we'd
succeeded," she declares
"when for once my dress
was not in total tatters
at the end"

fade to black as a female
voice sings softly in an endless loop
"I see your true colors shining through,
I see your true colors
and that's why I love you..."*


[free verse poem on a dream of 11-2-13. *I've always been very fond of the Cyndi Lauper version of the song
"True Colors" and was reminded of it last night when it was sung very movingly on the T.V. show "Glee." To the dream itself: I think it's addressing a recent sadness I've been feeling. As if some part of me has stolen away with a certain very valuable focus or determination, and left an embarrassed self-pity in its place, like some fairy changeling. This dream fulfills the wish that what's been "stolen" be retrieved. Or maybe even makes the point that it's not gone, just eclipsed in some way. Photo art "The Inquiry" (8-20-09) 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.

THE MONKEY WRENCH (photo art) & FLASH FIRE (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

FLASH FIRE

two children skip ahead of us
as we amble in the late afternoon
along the old cement path,
drying grass and wheat-like fronds
poking up from every crack

she stops suddenly, setting fronds
to waving and dropping their seeds
did she see something in the confusion
of the browning grasses?
no, she's rounding on me, dressing
me down faster than an elevator
in free fall

defense! my immediate instinct
but I hold my tongue well back
from that dangerous front
and gently assert that it may not
be good for the children
to witness this sort of anger

her rage promptly fragments
raining hotly down around us
and waking me from this odd dream

just what was the point of all
that fulminating anyway? I roll over
into sleep and a new dream, leaving
her to deal with any fall out
from her flash fire alone


[free verse poem on a dream of 10-31-13. Well, I did dream it on Halloween night, so I guess I could say the devil made me do it. But seriously, I'm still as puzzled by this dream as I was when I briefly woke from it in the night. The woman was someone I actually know, though the children were non-specific, vague presences. Though I have to admit to having some interesting associations as I type these comments right now. Photo art "The Monkey Wrench" (8-20-09) 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.

PASSAGEWAY (photo) & DECORATING THE DIVE (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

DECORATING THE DIVE

ah, good! it's still here, that odd hallway
I'd begun to think I'd imagined, that ends
in the other dimension, but it is real
and my friends and I slip through
with much delight
we commune happily with another friend
who entered this other side so long ago
and stayed, much to our sorrow
she tells us it's really no big deal
to make the dive into and out of
this alternate space,
simply treat the hallway
like a pool, aim, and off you go
that even the sides of the hallway hang
like a pool's containing walls,
wavering with ambient light
as one floats or speeds past
maybe I should make an effort,
I think, to somehow decorate
those wide walls of passage,
find some way to artfully display
small paintings and other chachkis*
in that changing light so there will be
intriguing things to peruse on any future
ill-conceived or wandering unfocussed dive


[free verse poem on a dream of 10-31-13. "Chachkis" -- one of several ways I've seen of spelling the Yiddish word for trinkets and baubles of little monetary worth, but often of sentimental value. I associate the other dimension in this dream to death, which is not surprising given I had this dream on Halloween night. But I have had at least one other dream that I recall of visiting "the other side." That old dream was more about calming my fears that my then recently deceased friend was still suffering after her death and this current dream's focus seems to be largely on the "passing over" itself. Photo "Passageway" (9-23-13) by Roswila; and, yes, it's the same photo I posted yesterday, in its original colors]

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.