INCUBATION (photo art) & THE GIVER (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE GIVER

he sits by his basket of jelly beans
like a mother hen by her eggs
but gives his away
one sweet dollop at a time

at first he seems genuine
in his gifting, his smile
as bright as any of his beans
but, look again,
note that wrinkle, that tiny
shadow of a downturn
at each corner of his mouth?

a thank you will never suffice
and his mind requires reading,
for payment must match
his tight lipped expectation


[free verse poem on a dream of 4-11-14. Photo art "Incubation" (4-6-14 009v3) 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.

MORPHING MASKS (photo art) & THE VOLE (dream tanka trio) by Roswila

THE VOLE

what are you doing,
vole, poking your pointed nose
where it's not wanted?
hell, what are you doing here
in our apartment at all?

so what if you're sleek
and a glossy mahogany,
you're not a pet,
no proper housemate like
a cat or dog, but wild life

and so what if you
calmly let me pick you up
and put you outside?
cuteness can't change your genes
you are what you are, vole!


[three tanka on a dream of 4-10-14. Voles are sometimes known as meadow mice or field mice, and the images on Wikipedia looked to my eye just like mice. My dream vole, however, was more like a small weasel or mole. Not surprising to have an image like this in a dream these days. I've been getting warning feelings off a certain waking situation that is, on the surface, just fine. It's the vole's resemblance to a weasel or mole that bothers me (the expression "weaseling out," and "mole" meaning a long hidden spy). Although I can also hear some warnings about self-sabotage and/or paranoaic thinking, this is one of those rare dreams of mine that seems more to be addressing an objective situation. Photo art "Morphing Masks" (3-26-14 002v10) 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.

THE CHARIOT (Tarot card from a deck) & DREAM CHARIOTEER (non-dream tanka) by Roswila

DREAM CHARIOTEER

dream charioteer
vulnerable to star winds
trusting in your steeds
gather your fleeting harvest
and lay it at dawn's gold feet


[non-dream tanka written 4-9-14 about The Chariot card in The Golden Tarot of Klimt, which is the image above. Unfortunately, the highlighting lovely gold stamping on this card (and all the deck's cards) cannot show in the scan. This deck is the newest in my collection. It has always intriguing and sometimes challenging illustrations.]

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.

HEADING HOME (photo) & THE VISIT (dream tanka/2-liner/monoku) by Roswila

THE VISIT

it's his first visit
since moving out of this house
we had so long shared,
not being able to bear
the death of the boy we'd raised

he wanders this home
I'm still living in, deeply
preoccupied,
then asks "Does the sadness
ever really go away?"

"No," I say softly
"but it has thinned out a lot,
memories of him
no longer hanging heavy
like perfume choking the air"

I feel he doesn't quite believe me,
but also sense his liveliness returning

I trail him from room to room the old floorboards creak


[three tanka capped by a two-liner and monoku on a dream of 4-8-14. Photo "Heading Home" (3-24-14 006v2) 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.

DOWN THE DRAIN (photo art) & AT FIRST (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

AT FIRST

... it seems to be a swirling hole
or more mundanely a matter
of advancing cataracts

but no it's something as logical
as a nest in these bud heavy
embracing branches

at least that's what pleases
the mind to think and ends
all the casting about for focus

unclarity serves survival anyway

arriving's such a delicate thing
a clear line of sight
from observing eyes might hook
and flip it all off track

to be whipped
into a froth of nothingness
down a swirling hole


[non-dream poem written in March 2014. I wrote this specifically in response to the prompt for a spring 2015 issue of WATERWAYS Magazine. It has been accepted for publication and is posted here today with the publisher's permission. Photo art "Down the Drain" (4-6-14 001v4) 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.

BRANCHING OUT (photo) & "palm frond shadows..." (non-dream tanka) by Roswila

palm frond shadows
on the aqua pool water
waving waving
my camera tucked away
no capturing these moments


[non-dream tanka written 4-7-14. To my amusement I note though I may have resisted the urge to get out my camera, I did not resist writing a poem. I've drafted haiku and tanka overlooking the pool often enough that almost as soon as I sit down my brain starts percolating one. Photo "Branching Out" (4-3-14 005v3) 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.

INTO THE LIGHT (photo) & "only enough..." (non-dream haiku) by Roswila

only enough for spring's
outpouring of blossoms
time of drought


[non-dream haiku, written 4-6-14. I wrote this in response to two haiku posted to a haiku writing group online. (The group is not open anymore or I'd post a link to it here.) The subject of rain, and of discovering "the poetic even in the most mundane" inspired the first haiku, then another person posted a second one, and I added this one above. This is often what happens in this sort of writing group, it's called a "string" and can go on at length and be rather an intriguing and creative process. Especially as any responding haiku need not stick strictly to the "subject" but have an indirect way of connecting/responding to the previous 'ku (that process is called "linking"). The drought here in California was more on my mind than usual this morning as I had to use quite a bit of water this morning to clean up a mess. Can't believe how guilty that made me feel! Which echoed how I was feeling yesterday, happily snapping pix of all the gorgeous spring flowers in yet another sunny day. BTW, we did have a huge rainstorm in the beginning of March which is what has helped things blossom so far. But of course it barely made a dent in the overall drought. Photo "Into the Light" (4-2-14 032v3) 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.