TIGER, TIGER BURNING BRIGHT (photo) & THE WILD COUPLE (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE WILD COUPLE

the tiger pair we've hired escapes
to a lush green glen split by a clear stream

the large male cat kills a wandering pet
dragging it through rustling brush
by its throat

we must get these two wild cats back
to the trailer on the movie lot
locked away and under our control again

the female begins to stalk a large
black dog downstream

I call out the character names of this wild
tiger pair, hoping they will not only
recall them but respond and follow
me away from the glen back to the lot

the dense greenery overhanging
the stream muffles my shouts
but their twitching ears
reveal they hear me

once back in the movie lot trailer
the tigers resume their hominid form
handsome and stark naked
like idealized primal humans

as the female paces just behind me
I talk firmly to the male putting him
on notice: a termination contract
is being prepared even as I speak

we cannot tolerate their hunting
and killing even if it is their nature
after all they'd gone totally off script
abandoning their characters
and we are filming a movie


[free verse poem on a dream of 1-19-14. I'm not fully clear on this dream yet. Especially as the tiger is one of my "power animals." Though as I typed that, I realized it's probably mostly addressing a struggle I've been having with food issues. Some part of me that I perceive as wild and powerful is giving me grief in other words. Yet by the end of this dream it's more humanized. And that this is all in the context of a movie being filmed seems to suggest I work to re-attain some detachment. I just recalled that I actually incubated this dream, asking my dreams for help with my food struggle before I fell asleep last night. And as I've said about other issues, this struggle is being stirred up by the fallout from my brother's recent death. I.e., it would be all too easy to fall back into an old pattern and eat wrong in an attempt to dull my difficult emotions. Photo "Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright" (8-5-09 5010e) 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. (This all applies to any of the non-dream poems posted here, too.)

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....".

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‘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.