An old Block Island photo & SMOKE (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

SMOKE

it's a relaxing ride along the sunny
coast highway, my father and I
comfortably silent, he at the wheel
as I gaze out the front side window

different hungers hit us both,
I fumble in my purse for the last
little bit of my smoked nuts
and gobble them down, my father,
hankering for a cigarette, drives off
on to the roadside, at least
he won't endanger others
by driving while smoking, I think

many off road paths appear before us,
haphazardly paved with stones
and overgrown with grass and moss,
winding over sloping spring green
hills, I think of photos of Ireland
I've seen, regretting I've never
visited that ancestral home

as I wonder where my father will stop
for a cigarette, two small rusty white
cars rise over one of the hilltop
paths in the distance, both smoking
from their undercarriages as if on
these rough roads way too long

the two cars rumble past us fading
from view and I go back to my gazing,
now noting these gentle hills remind
me of beautiful Block Island*
as a pang of wishing I were there
mimics hunger in my stomach

my father continues driving these
stony rolling paths, still not settling
on where to stop for his smoke,
clearly caught up
in his own remembering

all this nostalgia,
no more nourishing
or lasting than smoke


[free verse poem on a dream of 4-14-14. *Block Island is a tiny, gorgeous island off Rhode Island. There are stretches of it that resemble photos I've seen of Ireland. I used to take vacations on B.I. many years back and have recently been sadly wishing I could again. Photo: a scan of a pic I took on Block Island back in the late 1980's (one of the few pix I ever took before moving here to CA in 2008), slightly fussed with via computer today]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers, as the above is), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

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until next time, keep dreaming,

[aka: Patricia Kelly]
**** 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.