ON THE PATH TO OZ (photo art) & AT AN EDGE (dream tanka series w/two liner) by Roswila

AT AN EDGE

that younger male friend
of mine from decades ago
jumps from the huge ship
his long hair floats around him
as he slowly treads water

he's awaits the stag
on whose back he's going to ride
through this wide harbor
I watch as the immense hart's
lowered by winch to the water

my friend has his ride
but how will I reach dockside
in this foreign country?
but I needn't be concerned
just the thought wings me to land

walking upriver
I remember my camera
but don't take it out
I'm too anxious to arrive
in the city just ahead

but for its spiraled
towers it could be New York
against that skyline
and not a Russian city
I'm determined to reach

up close the buildings
are more varied than I'd thought,
more a potpourri
of ages and styles than pure
travel brochure Russian

while I look straight up
I begin framing a photo
with my inner eye,
the angles and contrasts
crying out for a shot

camera pulled out
I see I need to back up
and do so slowly,
trying to get more and more
of the scene into the frame

a sudden stumble
hauls me up short, I forgot
I was at an edge
only stories of empty
space between me and the street

but it's already
too late, I can't recover,
though I scramble about
grasping for non-existent
holds on the building facade

no, this will not do! I think as I plummet,
and wrestle myself into a false awakening*

the new dream bears no
falling nor even a landing,
it also has no
staying power, vanishing
like cotton candy from one's tongue


[tanka series with one two-liner just before the end, on a dream of 3-11-14. *"False awakening" as I'm using the term means I've lucidly (i.e. with awareness that I'm dreaming) stopped a dream, but not woken from sleep nor retained lucidity. Usually on those rare occasions when I make myself get out of a dream I can't/won't tolerate, I wake completely from sleep. However in this and in one or two other cases I can recall, once I ended the intolerable dream, I wound up in a totally different non-lucid dream. Even without recalling the post false awakening dream portion, this was a very lengthy dream. And I've even left out some action between the harbor scene and the city as it was too vague to get into satisfying written form. An image just occurred to me for this dream as a whole: a visit to Oz. Therefore, that's the photo art of mine that I'm posting here today, "On the Path to Oz" (3-10-10 10046ev2)]

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.