PAVANE FOR AQUA (photo morph) & THE NUMBERS HAVE IT (dream tanka series) by Roswila

THE NUMBERS HAVE IT

Dream #1

the guy she doesn't
really like but feels drawn to
despite it all
asks for his phone number
positive she'll not recall it

after all he only
said it once and fast at that
but she rattles it off
all seven numbers without
a second's hesitation

and just as quickly
notes that they add up to
a total of nine,
the Tarot Hermit's number
this clearly means something

but not about the guy
more like a phone message
for her she'd do well
to heed: forget this hook-up
and stay happily alone


Dream #2

the red dress is too tight
and she wore it this season
two times already
but she has nothing else
clean or dressy enough to wear

after much searching
she finds an aqua-blue dress
that fits like a glove
and it's only a size fourteen!
can you spell astounded?

she hasn't been
a size fourteen in more years
than she cares to recall...
ah, another number, this one
reducing quickly to five,

the Tarot's Hierophant,
card of the inner teacher:
has she trimmed away
most of the fatuous thoughts
blocking her intuition?


Postscript

the numbers trail me
into waking, circling my pillow
a quirky couple
their pas de deux weaving
a trust for intuited wisdom


[tanka series on two dreams of 7-20-14. These are the first tanka on which I tried a different approach to writing. Rather than count syllables for the lines -- 5-7-5-7-7, I just let the "breath" of my writing lay out the line length with no subsequent counting to adjust them if need be. This was prompted by an article I read recently about tanka. It claimed that some contemporary writers don't count syllables, but simply maintain a short-long-short-long-long rhythm. And since I have tended to fudge occasionally on syllable count when it felt needful anyway, this seemed a good method to try. I very much liked the ease, the flow it afforded, and have been using it since with tanka. (However, I do get the giggles when the fingers on one of my hands will still occasionally lift preparing to count syllables. And I hasten to add it may have been the years of counting that internalized the form so that the line lengths that are coming "naturally" to me now tend to be exact sometimes and at others very close to the traditional syllable count.) The associations I had in the dreams to the Tarot cards are consistent with Tarot lore. The last line, however, is my blending of what the numbers/cards were saying to me as a pair. And these two Tarot characters do make for a quirky pas de deux. :-) The Hermit (IX) usually being a solitary monk-like old man on a mountain holding up a lantern, and The Hierophant (V), a Pope-like person on a throne/dais with two students at his feet. Omigosh, a last thought: a dream about numbers and I decide to write about it without counting syllables. At one level, could the dreams have been encouraging me to trust the writing process and give up the counting? Photo morph "Pavane for Aqua" (8-7-14 015v7) 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.