HANGING FIRE (photo art) & THE HANGING BABY (dream tanka series) by Roswila

THE HANGING BABY

employees gossip
heatedly among themselves
that they want to quit --
management's treatment of them
is abysmal, they assert

one handsome young man,
though, placidly says that he's
made an about face
and reveals the flipside to a
massive chart they'd been viewing

just why this dark side
has changed his mind is unclear:
trompe l'oeil rafters
challenge the eye, and hanging
from one is a large baby

if viewed for a while
one can tell the babe's not only
more draped than hanging,
but constructed of eye
fooling flesh colored rubber

arguing rises
among the gathered workers
as to what this means,
some saying it's a threat
others, that it's a mirror

saddened, the young man
goes back to his work alone
not realizing
that the symbols he's turned up
also go on with their jobs


[several tanka on a dream of 2-24-14. (Trompe l'oiel.) When drafting this tanka series I made the choice not to go on about the many "meanings" I see in the dream, especially that hanging baby. For I think an important "point" of this dream is how symbols often just keep on unfolding. And then there's the Zen saying that "The most dangerous thing in the world is to think you understand something." Not that we can't attain little handholds that help us navigate through our lives (and even those we may need to let go of). The danger is in thinking we absolutely and completely understand. All of which fits with my association of the hanging baby to The Hanged Man (sometimes called The Hanging Man) in the Tarot. A card of letting go, of surrender of the ego, among many other ways of relating to it's symbolism/imagery. A card which keeps offering new vistas to me as a reader (as do all the Tarot cards). Here it is in the Rider/Waite/Smith deck:

Photo art "Hanging Fire" (7-28-12 12093ev4) 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....".

* * * *

‘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.