THE FLOOD NEXT TIME (photo morph) & THE CHARGER (dream tanka series w/two-liner) by Roswila

THE CHARGER

my best friend and I
wander the sea's edge looking
for an open spot
but in this crowd there's no room
for us to spread our blanket

then I notice three
empty squares of gleaming sand
my friend ignores them
as too small but I'm concerned
about why they were vacated

other spots open
around us as I look toward
the turbulent sea,
we'd best grab our cells phones, I say,
we're about to be flooded!

but it's way too late
the water's already
shorted out our cells
we flee, sloshing with the crowd,
toward higher dryer ground

sans charged cell phones
whatever will we do,
I grouse, as my friend
points to a long line forming
at the edge of the milling crowd

each person waits their turn humbly
as the line moves ever so slowly

in a post-flood world the man
with a charger is king


[tanka series capped by a pair of two-liners on a dream from late July 2014. I've had this one on the back burner for a bit over a month. Almost scrapped it but decided it might do for a day just like today when I have nothing else I feel like posting. And at least it's dream-based and not a re-post. I should note that there's a pun in that last line, a charger also being a medieval King's (or Knight's) war horse. And that set me to racing -- if you'll pardon another pun -- after various further associations to this dream, though I didn't get very far. I also wonder at all the water given the drought California's in. Of course, it would require bringing the desalination plant on line that they keep dragging their heels about here in the Santa Barbara area. :-) Photo morph "The Flood Next Time" (8-12-14 013v7b) 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.