SYNAPTIC REVOLT (photo art) & JUST HOW (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

JUST HOW

just how the aliens from another planet
have succeeded in taking over Earth
is rather puzzling -- oh yes their ways
are strange and mental communication
to humans is instantaneous, but thinking
isn't even their preferred conceptual mode

the one they prefer? we don't know
or even if it's one we humans possess,
we only know we bear the burden
of their irresistible commands
as they gather us in for their admitted
murderous purposes, layered with the scorn
they express toward thinking, even as they
control us with thoughts ...
but we humans refuse to give up

so it is I climb staircase after staircase
for secret meetings with fellow rebels --
what was impossible for me before
the aliens' advent has now become
wonted: I simply breathe deep,
taking each step up in my arthritic stride,
as my preternaturally intelligent toddler
triplets straggle behind bellyaching
"Not another climb!"

and rising surely with me each time,
making me giddy, is how I know
in that non-thinking way lightly warming
the pit of my stomach, that these aliens
will lose and that their defeat
lies in what they most scorn:
our ability to think


[free verse poem on a dream of 1-5-14. Photo art "Synaptic Revolt" (10-5-11 11359v2) by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS):

But first, a request: please let me know of any typos or other sorts of blunders in my posts. As my eyes age I'm finding more mistakes are creeping into what I put up here no matter how many times I proof it all. Thanks for any help!

The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, monoku, free verse, dream narratives -- 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 or narrative 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. I now tend to "show" (the dream story) 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 also pretty much applies to my free verse dream poems as well. As to what I have begun calling dream narratives, they are a different animal, probably most akin to prose poems.

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.