RAVELED SLEEVES (photo) & THE TELL (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE TELL

as she slides the candies
with which I've paid for the corn chips
into her coin drawer this vaguely
familiar snack stand operator
chats me up

"Remember that astrologer
I told you about?" she asks,
I don't and simply nod, not ready
to commit to this interaction

"...well, I've signed for a new
course of his on 'Unpacking
Powerful Images'"

she shuts the cash register drawer
and straightens like an exclamation
point "Can you imagine me
handling power?" widening her
dark eyes in practiced amazement

"And," she adds, the words coming
out in a breathy rush, "...the first
class tomorrow is called 'The Power
of the Potent Tell'"

I nod again politely and turn around
to catch the train I hear rumbling
into the station, thinking that
of course a tell is powerful

for then you know whether or not
to stick around for what the other
has up their sleeve


[free verse poem on a dream of 2-19-14. The most important aspect to this dream, I think, is in that first stanza. "Paying the price" for one food that's not good for me with another "not good" food. Clearly not a healthy trade, and I've been rationalizing just such a one for months. This dream puts me on notice to let go. There's also more here, though. As in an earlier dream/poem I posted it's also about our inner b.s. detectors, which detecting includes recognizing my own b.s. And that goes back to that bad food trade at the top of the poem. BTW, both the course and class titles are verbatim from the dream. FYI, a definition of "tell" from Wikipedia: A reflexive, often habitual behavior, especially one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (such as a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold. Photo "Raveled Sleeves" (2-22-11 10536e) 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.