ON THE WAY TO CALICO (photo art) & THE CALICO TABBY (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE CALICO TABBY

my friend and I inherit
a big calico tabby just as we start
moving into our new apartment
I'm somewhat surprised he lets me
pick him up much less carry him
into the almost empty rooms
like a large loaf of warm bread
once on the floor he hunkers
down as if waiting for instructions,
his name, Al, suddenly occurs to me
and I call to him softly as I walk
through the doorway into my room
he slinks cautiously and slowly
along after me, while I look
for my clothes through the huge
cartons standing in a neat line against
the wall like soldiers at attention
I've a sudden urge to change into
my camouflage top and slacks
(it seems Al's not the only one
in this new space on high alert)


[free verse poem on a dream of 4-18-14. Photo art "On the Way to Calico" (4-12-14 003v13) 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,







[a/k/a 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.

THE HEART OF UNCERTAINTY (photo art) & THE TIN WOMAN SPEAKS (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

THE TIN WOMAN SPEAKS

the distance between a star
so new and far away its light
has not yet reached the earth
is no greater than that
which glitters between you and me
the former will require miracles
of technology to cross it
and though my shyness grasps
at mind games to tool a path
from me to you
I fear this latter distance
only asks for heart to bridge it


[non-dream free verse poem written in April of 1993 and revised most recently a few days ago; it appeared here in 2007 in an earlier version. I was reminded of this old poem when a poet friend said she felt like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. She's going through all the endless diagnosis, other opinions, and such, for a possible heart procedure. Photo art "The Heart of Uncertainty" (4-6-14 002v6) 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,






[a/k/a 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.

MASQUE EMERGENT (photo art) & THE PARTY (dream tanka w/2 two-liners) by Roswila

THE PARTY

everyone's wearing
costumes under their street clothes
the party bogs down
the serious scaring the shy
who scatter to dark corners

a small child tugs at her mom's askew old sweater
urging her to doff it, to show off her fun guise

suddenly the room's full of brightly costumed folk
being playful, and why not? there's no way out


[a tanka capped by a pair of two-liners on a dream of 4-16-14. Photo "Masque Emergent" (4-6-14 001v2) 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.

IN STAGES (photo art) & ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE... (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE ...*

it's called a storybook in the vernacular
though to my eyes all we're pasting up
is a scrapbook of addresses, each on
a separate page, in numeric order,
then adding a photo of a person
to the left of each, highlighting
a life lived largely in that place

I note a big gap in the numbered pages,
then realize that's where the bridge
across Sheepshead Bay** extends,
from 40th Street, on the northwest,
to 41st on its other southeast end

the remnants of my calligraphy skill
come in handy (you should pardon
the pun) when I letter a scintillating
name above each address
and picture pair, both for a touch
of art and for ease
of future reference

our director then gently shuts the large
flat book and brushing it almost
affectionately with the palm of one hand
murmurs "It's ready for use now,
for without the stories there'd be no show"


[free verse poem (or maybe this is one of those that is more like a narrative) on a dream of 4-15-14. *From the Shakespeare soliloquy that starts: "All the world's a stage, // And all the men and women merely players. // They have their exits and their entrances, ..." I don't recall exactly where I heard those opening words of the title, but they were in the dream. **Sheepshead Bay: an actual bay between Brooklyn, New York City and Coney Island NYC, with a great deal of teenage memories of mine attached to it. Those street numbers, though, I associate to when I was 40 years old (numbers in dreams for me often reference ages). One of the most painful and ultimately most transformative years of my life. That bridge also represents other transition times, but it's too much to go into here. BTW, there's a clear association overall of the "storybook" to this blog and to the binders I keep of printouts of its posts. As well as to the binders of pix I'll be showing in an exhibit/sale I'm having on April 27th. However, it's in other details of this dream that its deeper "meanings" are touched upon. Photo art "In Stages" (4-12-14 002v9) 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.

An old Block Island photo & SMOKE (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

SMOKE

it's a relaxing ride along the sunny
coast highway, my father and I
comfortably silent, he at the wheel
as I gaze out the front side window

different hungers hit us both,
I fumble in my purse for the last
little bit of my smoked nuts
and gobble them down, my father,
hankering for a cigarette, drives off
on to the roadside, at least
he won't endanger others
by driving while smoking, I think

many off road paths appear before us,
haphazardly paved with stones
and overgrown with grass and moss,
winding over sloping spring green
hills, I think of photos of Ireland
I've seen, regretting I've never
visited that ancestral home

as I wonder where my father will stop
for a cigarette, two small rusty white
cars rise over one of the hilltop
paths in the distance, both smoking
from their undercarriages as if on
these rough roads way too long

the two cars rumble past us fading
from view and I go back to my gazing,
now noting these gentle hills remind
me of beautiful Block Island*
as a pang of wishing I were there
mimics hunger in my stomach

my father continues driving these
stony rolling paths, still not settling
on where to stop for his smoke,
clearly caught up
in his own remembering

all this nostalgia,
no more nourishing
or lasting than smoke


[free verse poem on a dream of 4-14-14. *Block Island is a tiny, gorgeous island off Rhode Island. There are stretches of it that resemble photos I've seen of Ireland. I used to take vacations on B.I. many years back and have recently been sadly wishing I could again. Photo: a scan of a pic I took on Block Island back in the late 1980's (one of the few pix I ever took before moving here to CA in 2008), slightly fussed with via computer today]

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.

COSMIC DOUMBEK (photo art) & "paradiddling..." (dream tanka) by Roswila

paradiddling*
with an old knitting needle
and a steak knife,
I try various office
surfaces for the best sound


[a tanka, dreamed & written in January of 2009 and slightly revised today. *Paradiddling is a rudimentary drumming exercise. When I ran across this old dream tanka today I was struck by how the more things change, the more they stay the same. The dream pointed out feelings I wasn't fully aware of and even used an image -- needle -- that the person I was feeling drummed down by used (the day after the dream). The word steak here can also be read as stake -- as in "stake to the heart." The office image woke me then to how I hadn't felt that way since my last full time job, years back. Altogether, a "wake up and do something about all this" dream; to stop playing victim. Then there was the flip side. I love drum music and I love to drum, though I'm a rank amateur. I also enjoy crocheting and knitting, and I'd been craving good protein (steak) as I'd been eating too many carbs. So on the other side of the coin was the message to get on with my life, with the things that I love and want to pursue, and to attend better to my health again. That this was my work (that office image). Photo art "Cosmic Doumbek" (3-26-14 002v4) 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.

DRAINING (photo art) & IN A DRY TIME (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

IN A DRY TIME

the rock star with a white blonde
buzz cut crowds my bathroom sink
as if it were bathtub

she's been lounging in it
and bathing for a very long time
with the water running all the while

I know she's aware there's a drought
emergency, who wouldn't be?
it's been flooding the T.V. news
and other media for months

enough's way more than enough!
I shut the water faucet down
with a loud slap

she looks up startled through a mound
of sliding bubbles ... Okay ...
I relent and give her a few more
seconds of running water to rinse
with, then shut the water down
again, and turn away to get on
with my day:

I have much more interesting
(if less important) things to do
than to monitor this spoiled
rock star's use of water


[free verse poem on a dream of 4-12-14. As mentioned in a previous post, California is in a drought emergency. This is the first direct reference to it in my dreams. It was largely precipitated by my plan to wash my very long (white) hair this morning. Although I've developed ways of greatly conserving on the amount of water I use when doing so, I still feel a bit guilty every time I wash it. Not only that, but I was spoiled by a life time of the soft water in New York City which rinses things clean much more quickly than California's hard water. BTW, that "rock star with a ... buzz cut" is a good example of how dreams sometimes have symbols that are the exact opposite of the things they're about. Photo art "Draining" (3-26-14 021v9) 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.