GOTCHA! (photo) & AT THE SAME TIME (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

AT THE SAME TIME

the new meditation coach
gently yet definitely skewers
my favorite visualization,
telling a student how the tree
climbing image she's been using
remains one of the least
effective ways to achieve the goal

the instructor goes on to praise
another pupil who'd artlessly
achieved sangha,* sliding into
the sought after state almost
as an after thought

during all this tutoring
she doesn't even glance
in my direction --
which must take some effort
given I am one of only
three students --
leaving me to spiral in the dry
winds of this obstacle course,
wondering how one can feel
invisible and shot down
at the same time


[free verse poem on a dream of 2-21-14. *Yes, one might think the word here should be "samadhi" (intense meditative concentration) and not "sangha" (a Buddhist community of monks, nuns, students, and laity). But sangha is the word I heard. And it brings a particular focus to the dream: my struggles with living in a community for the first time in my life since I moved to CA six years ago. While "at the same time" referencing the community I've lived with inside myself all my life. (About which I've posted a couple of dream pieces recently.) And that inner community is more of a handful to handle any day than the actual one I'm in now. "At the same time" this dream addresses my worries in particular relationships, both past and present. Hm, that teacher may have been right. Trying to climb each and every branch on the tree of this dream "at the same time" may be a problem in itself. :-) Oh no, another thought: is this dream suggesting a sense of community is not something to be sought after per se, or struggled for, but rather is a result of living one's life right where one is. Much like that expression "Life is what happens while you're making other plans." Photo "Gotcha!" (2-8-14a 003v3 2-12-14) by Roswila]

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.

* * * *

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.

TWO BY TWO (photo) & SHOPPING DAY (dream narrative) by Roswila

SHOPPING DAY

two teenage boys watch secretly
from behind the well-stocked shelves
of the supermarket as a hetero-couple
shop for children to adopt

the female hangs back observing
while the male goes from one child
to another lining the market aisles,
as she gives her mate coded comments
on each girl or boy via her subtle
hand gestures and facial expressions

when the couple leaves the store
as silently as they shopped with two
preternaturally quiet children,
the young men turn to each other
with puzzled looks

one wonders out loud about
the little girl with the endlessly
expressive smile and eloquent eyes,
"What a shame they didn't take her"

adding on a sigh "I hope she'll
get good parents here ...
then again, will that odd couple
that just left be good? Who knows?"

his friend nods a shock of dark hair,
responding "Yes, we can only know
for certain that they'll be human"


[narrative on a dream of 2-20-14. The feeling tone of that final "human" was very accepting, so my sense is that this dream has taken a small step ahead. I.e., that by saying "human" he meant a mix of good and well-meaning, imperfect and fallible, wise, and unaware. Along with everything else we humans are and can be. Photo "Two by Two" (1-5-11 10282e) 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.

RAVELED SLEEVES (photo) & THE TELL (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE TELL

as she slides the candies
with which I've paid for the corn chips
into her coin drawer this vaguely
familiar snack stand operator
chats me up

"Remember that astrologer
I told you about?" she asks,
I don't and simply nod, not ready
to commit to this interaction

"...well, I've signed for a new
course of his on 'Unpacking
Powerful Images'"

she shuts the cash register drawer
and straightens like an exclamation
point "Can you imagine me
handling power?" widening her
dark eyes in practiced amazement

"And," she adds, the words coming
out in a breathy rush, "...the first
class tomorrow is called 'The Power
of the Potent Tell'"

I nod again politely and turn around
to catch the train I hear rumbling
into the station, thinking that
of course a tell is powerful

for then you know whether or not
to stick around for what the other
has up their sleeve


[free verse poem on a dream of 2-19-14. The most important aspect to this dream, I think, is in that first stanza. "Paying the price" for one food that's not good for me with another "not good" food. Clearly not a healthy trade, and I've been rationalizing just such a one for months. This dream puts me on notice to let go. There's also more here, though. As in an earlier dream/poem I posted it's also about our inner b.s. detectors, which detecting includes recognizing my own b.s. And that goes back to that bad food trade at the top of the poem. BTW, both the course and class titles are verbatim from the dream. FYI, a definition of "tell" from Wikipedia: A reflexive, often habitual behavior, especially one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (such as a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold. Photo "Raveled Sleeves" (2-22-11 10536e) 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.

NEURONIC NETHERWORLD (photo art) & SIMPLY NOTHING (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

SIMPLY NOTHING

she's no warmer toward me than one
of those cold fronts dumping snow and rain
everywhere except in this land of drought

and all he wants, has ever wanted, is to glow
with pride over my pretty face and figure
(as if he'd chosen these genes
and they weren't the luck of the draw)
no matter my empty depths
still cry futilely for something else

these two lie long dead, along with all
the others (some only metaphorically so
but dead to me nevertheless)
gone to whatever waits beyond the veil

yet I was more alone when all were living,
more able to establish boundaries,
to reject manipulative fawning,
to resist the pull to petition cold fronts

yes, I still wail a fervent "No!"
with each re-haunting, yet
what ground is there to stand upon,
what flesh to turn away from,
what boundaries to be drawn within
this intangible network of fire flashing
nerves I call a mind? for this
is where they live (have always lived)

my only prayer on nights as burning
as this? may there be not even ashes
once death draws the final curtain
on this melodrama:

no applause,
no reviews,
no revivals,
simply
nothing


[free verse poem on fragments from several dreams of 2-17-14. Photo art "Neuronic Netherworld" (6-10-09 2020v3) 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.

EVANESCENCE (photo) & A POST HOC VALENTINE (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

A POST HOC VALENTINE

do not offer me all of you
for I will not pretend
to offer you myself

better we flee this fantasy
of fixed selves
crowded with parroted ideals
and all wrapped up
in pretty words
and sentimental tears

let's not waste
what time we have to stand
in each other's light
driving nails
through the hem
of the fleeting


[non-dream free verse poem written 2-18-14. Photo "Evanescence" (11-19-09 8259e) 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.

AUTUMN AT THE GATE (photo art) & TRANSPORTING (trio of non-dream haiku) by Roswila

TRANSPORTING

rusty front gate
a white taxi idles
at the curb

* * * *

after the tunnel
a half moon smudged
by clouds

* * * *

leaving the cab
oh, the shower
of golden leaves!


[three old haiku from my last working years back east in New York City, written in late 2005/early 2006. These are from a large number of haiku I wrote waiting for, riding in, or just after taxi rides to/from work. My knee arthritis had advanced to the point that I could no longer do the walking to/from the subway, much less do endless stairs once in the stations and all that standing crowded into a lurching box. Of course, the cabs were so expensive I was almost working for no profit, but even a tiny income was better than none at all. So I held on and continued to work until I could take early retirement when I turned 62. Photo art "Autumn at the Gate" (12-24-13 002v5) by Roswila]

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.

* * * *

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.

HEART OF THE DUNE (photo art) & ON GOING 'ROUND THE HORN (dream narrative) by Roswila

ON GOING 'ROUND THE HORN

the sick man on his pallet must be
carried up the steep hill of sand,
but even with several of us
hauling we cannot make
any headway, our feet sliding
and our ankles bending,
no purchase or balance in the
shifting almost liquid sand

I stand at the bottom of the hill
refusing to give up, wondering
what other direction we might
come from to arrive at the goal:
the top of this steep
sandy hill where it opens
onto the restored boardwalk

my young woman friend
looks more annoyed each time
I speak up with another idea,
the most recent that we "go
'round the horn" via the road,
heft the man and pallet
up street stairs further along
on to the boardwalk, and from there
to the top of this hill ... "Surely,"
I note, "though many, many more
footsteps and a lot of stairs,
we'd have firm footing all the way..."

my friend rounds on me, openly
very aggrieved "Oh, just shut up ...
know when you're beaten,
why don't you? I don't want to hear
anymore ideas, failed hope
hurts too much"

I'm grateful she finally spoke out
but still think this new approach
could very well do the trick,
getting the man on his pallet safely
where he needs to go

how can I be silent
just to avoid the possibility
of causing her more guilt and pain?


[narrative on a dream of 2-15-14. Again, let me stress that all these characters are aspects of myself. What I'd most like to know, of course, is what "going 'round the horn" would be in my life right now. I.e., what actual activity or direction. As I typed that I thought it may simply suggest that I'll have to be patient. Things will take a lot longer than I'd like. That the greater problem is a desire to just give up; along with an implied desire to be taken care of, "carried." I may have used the line (or one very similar to it) "failed hope hurts too much" in some other dream poem. But maybe it just seems so familiar because I've thought it an awful lot in recent years. Photo art "Heart of the Dune" (11-19-09 8259ev6) 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.