Roswila's Dream & Poetry Realm

SEE ALSO: TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT (photos, realistic to abstract)

Saturday, February 15, 2014

PROCLAMATION (photo) & THE PUN (free verse dream poem) by Roswila


THE PUN

TMI! I'll never get that image
scrubbed off my retinas!

why didn't those two
Valentines Day lovers
simply lock my office door?

I really didn't mind them sneaking
in there while I was at lunch,
especially not on this day for lovers,
but lock! dear co-workers, lock!

sigh, I'll never again look at them
without blushing, that flash of porn
burned as surely into memory
(and more lastingly) as those red hot
hearts someone snuck into a bowl
of sweets that still haven't let
go of my taste buds

maybe this is what I get
for ignoring Valentines day
for I've heard it said that if
you don't give a holiday its due
it'll do you in its own way

and I just got done
(if you'll pardon the pun)


[free verse poem on a dream of 2-14-14. Yup, dreamed on Valentines Day, which I did pretty much ignore. It's hard to totally ignore it, especially where I live, with all the heart decorations up in our public areas and on various residents' front doors. Not to mention all the T.V. ads and shows referencing it ... ahHAH! I was probably doing my best to ignore this holiday because of all the chocolate being pictured and talked about, and candy appears in the dream. So, here again is a dream that is largely about food issues. Or rather, appetites of all kinds.

On another subject altogether, someone mentioned surprise that I had not posted more here about my brother's recent death. And I was surprised in turn given the number of posts directly about him, and then all my comments below other posts indicating how his passing had influenced any given dream. What I'd like to point out, however, is that although I'm not going into detail any more about the mourning process and how it's reflected in my dreams, it is still going on and will for some time I'm sure. (E.g. he appeared as his younger self in one dream recently that I did not, for various reasons, write about.)

Photo "Proclamation" (10-13-10 10006e) 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.

Friday, February 14, 2014

A Found Tarot Temperance Card (photo art) & FORMLESS (free verse dream poem) by Roswila


FORMLESS

again, the Temperance card,
lying there quietly yet magnetic,
implying what needs to be done

but, hell (you should pardon
that ironic oath), I'm no angel
neither by inborn nature
nor even by careful artifice

and why should I keep trying
to shape the formless fire
of mind, much less to quench
and quench it again, hoping
against all hope to temper it

I thought the burning need to forge
and temper this fractious mind
like a sword well past (or at least
a good way behind on this long road),
have I read this bright angel wrong?

I focus on the water moving
from vessel to vessel between
the angel's hands, down
or maybe up, or even both
ways at once ... and is it
even being poured or flowing
of its own volition,
as the winged one holds
the space, gently framing
the moment, perched lightly
between earth and sky


[free verse poem on a dream of 2-13-14. Photo art (2-8-14a 10026ev2) by Roswila, a possible Temperance card in my Found Tarot deck (to view additional "Found Tarot" cards use the search function in upper left of blog). And here's a more traditional Temperance card from the Rider/Waite/Smith deck, which is pretty much what I saw in the dream: 


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.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

ROSE CONSTELLATION (photo art) & STORIES (free verse dream poem) by Roswila


STORIES

ah! I didn't know the specifics but I knew
her stories would be this way, dark
and disturbing, filled with latter day snakes
in the garden and littered with rotten apples
both fallen and flung, stories like those
we each learn to keep under wraps
as we struggle to create and display
an ideal self

she continues to open up to this circle
of women, holding tight to the talking stick,
and I am buoyed by a huge empathic wave,
my spirit leaping to welcome her
into this wide open courtyard
beneath the stars we take as real
even as we know they are long gone,
the light of their archetypal journeys
giving lift to an otherwise
crushing emptiness


[free verse poem on a dream of 2-12-14. There's something that occasionally happens when an actual person shows up in a dream. It changes my understanding of and therefore actual relationship to that person. (Though that is rarely the total "purpose" for that person's appearance in the dream. Actual people tend to be as metaphoric in my dreams as anything else.) And that's what this dream has started to do with the waking life "she." I just started to type that I doubt it will be a very deep change, but how can I know until some time has gone by? I'm already feeling less judgmental of her. Who knows how that will affect any future interactions between us? I hasten to add that there are additional relationships and issues layering this dream. But I'd have to go on at length; this will suffice. Well, tell a lie, I should say I realize that the second stanza is not only a rather lengthy sentence but dense with images/information. However, I like how it moves so I'm leaving it as such. And I should also say that a talking stick is an American Indian tradition (and of other indigenous peoples, too, I gather). It gets passed around in a meeting and whoever holds it is the one who can speak. Photo art "Rose Constellation" (11-19-09 8258ev3) 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.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

FERN MAGIC (photo art) & "she, as usual ..." (dream tanka w/two liner) by Roswila


she, as usual,
blames herself for his actions
"Rather grandiose,"
a friend notes, "like taking blame
for this vine's twining tropism ...

we each have a hidden sun
toward which we unknowingly move"


[a tanka capped by a two-liner on a dream of 2-11-14. The vine, tropism, and sun images came about in the drafting of this piece. However, the "message" of the dream was as expressed via these images. And that friend in the dream did use the word "grandiose." Photo art "Fern Magic" (2-18-14a 019v2) 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.

Monday, February 10, 2014

RIDING FOR A FALL (photo art) & DOWNHILL RACER (free verse dream poem) by Roswila


DOWNHILL RACER

OMG! this car-cum-shopping-cart's
totally of out control!

did the driver fall asleep at the wheel?

from my seat far back in the rapidly
careening cart I yell for her to hit the brake

no response! I hit and kick at the back
of the driver side seat of this soon
to be coffin on wheels

given her lack of response the driver may
already be dead, stroked out at the wheel
of this huge rampaging basket

I begin flinging myself furiously around
trying to upset this massive apple cart,
to crash it onto a bank of the looping
expressway entrance ramp

this downhill race must be stopped


[free verse poem on a dream of 2-9-14. Yup, still having a devil of a time with eating issues, among other things this dream addresses. (I don't intend any reference to the winter sport in that title. However, it's hard to avoid thinking of it given the winter Olympics are in full swing right now.) Photo art "Riding for a Fall" (9-15-13 007v9) 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.

Sunday, February 09, 2014

PLAYING TO THE GALLERY (photo art) & AT THIS LAST MINUTE (free verse dream poem) by Roswila


AT THIS LAST MINUTE

why are you putting that young woman
at the top of my show? what don't you
understand about the word "my"?

you gave me the time slot to gather the talent,
choose which of their poems or songs or dances
they'll perform, and organize it around a theme
... and this all on my own shoe string
with no cost to you at all!

and here you go dropping that woman
on my show like a hobnail boot

what, you say? the young woman's just been
found by her mother after all these years
and sadly learned she can't abide the woman
who gave birth to her? that I should have sympathy,
and afford her some time for self expression?

well, then, why don't you simply give her
a separate time slot in which to produce her
own bargain basement show

instead of slapping her onto mine at this last minute,
like one of those garishly colored, impossible
to remove price stickers


[free verse poem on a dream of 2-8-14. This dream was more of a surprise than most. It showed me that I'm having quite a time of it accepting that some other aspect of my life/self has to take precedence, to be in the spotlight, if you will, right now. And given I think I know "who" "she" is, this will be true for the foreseeable future. "She" is also the "price I have to pay" if I really want what I say I do. As always, there's more but that's the most important aspect to this dream. Photo art "Playing to the Gallery" (9-23-13 003v2) 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.