AT THE DOOR (photo) & AGAINST THE GRAIN (dream tanka series w/2-liner) by Roswila

AGAINST THE GRAIN

where's the danged exit?
I got into this huge mall
so there's a way out
but logic doesn't always
serve, nor does intuition

I go round and round
looking for an exit
but come across none
not even finding my favorite
bookstore deters my frantic search

nor does running into
a good friend and her infant,
a son so newly born
he's still wet behind the ears
and so brilliant he's talking

nor does his clearly
taking to me, curling softly
up in my tense arms --
I hand him quickly back to her
and rush to a distant red door

I'd knocked and pounded
here on my earlier rounds
the painted red wood
and ancient rod iron lock
totally unyielding

when a last ditch "Open Sesame!" doesn't work
I'm left screaming against the door's lacquered grain


[tanka series capped by a two-liner on a dream of 9-29-14. This dream -- in part -- feels like a mash-up of the intense difficulty I had getting back to sleep and the dream that came when I did after that frustrating hour of tossing and turning. But that is only one level at which to read this dream. I had babies, one of them very smart, in a dream the previous night. I also note I saw another color, this time red. Hm, that calls to mind the expression "seeing red." However, a red door historically has been said to represent "welcome." And a bar with a live band for dancing called "The Red Door" played a big part in my late teens to early twenties. This last association is spot on, methinks. Even as I change and grow, there's no growing younger. That door's locked. Photo "At the Door" (9-24-14 014v4) 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.