OBSCURE (photo art) & EVERY TIME (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

EVERY TIME

every time I see that highway
toward the mountain foothills,
thinned by distance as it curves
between the trees along its sides,
I remember ... I remember
all those times we drove
that road on a sunny morning,
always to turn away to left
or to right before
its uphill path, headed
as we were for a sentimental
someplace else, no time
for an unknown ride


[non-dream free verse poem written 5-17-14. Photo art "Obscure" (5-3-14 6646ev10) 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.

ON A ROLL (photo art) & WITNESS (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

WITNESS

it's bad enough to see that couple
meeting to betray their spouses
but now here's the long beautiful
dark wood board walk being ruined

it can't handle truck and car traffic,
even though it's natural slant down
puts gravity at the vehicles service
making passage swift

it's extremely painful
to witness this rolling destruction
but as the eye of the dreamer only,
what can I do, my lucid skills*
are not strong enough

and following all the wheels
a large mechanical serpent
lurches down, not a lovely
weathered dark like the crumbling
board walk but a metallic black,
its only light harsh reflections

trailing this disruptive parade
a small but no less dark
herd of metal robot bulls
stumbles blindly down
over the splintering remains
of the boardwalk

long after their trampling
the wooden planks continue
to collapse, rumbling deeply
as if in pain and raising
burst after burst of dust

would that bearing witness
could make a difference
in the scheme of things

that seeing clearly
could matter at all


[free verse poem on a dream of 5-12-14. *"Lucid skills..." refers to my semi-lucid awareness that I was dreaming but incapable of changing anything. Skilled lucid dreamers can change and/or control a dream. Although more and more I find I'm vaguely lucid in dreams, I still have no control other than to wake myself up -- which I rarely choose to do. And, quite honestly, I have no desire to control a dream. I like that they do as they will. Even painful ones like this. Beyond definite personal resonance, I think this dream may also reference humanity as a whole and what we are doing to our earth. A note on the imagery in this dream: I'm sure it was heavily influenced by all the morning traffic sounds. Usually, I keep my bedroom window shut as that muffles the noise. But in heat waves like the one we're having, that's not a viable option. I had this dream the first night the window was open this year. However, this does not in any way mitigate what I see in this dream. My dreaming mind did choose to make these particular symbolic associations to all that traffic noise. Photo art "On a Roll" 5-3-14 6646ev5) 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 LEAK (photo art) & "several summers..." (tanka) by Roswila

several summers
have passed, morning traffic sounds
no longer wake me
from the wide open window
but trail like exhaust through dreams


[a tanka referencing the influence of outside noise on recent dream images, written 5-15-14. Photo art "The Leak" (4-24-14 003v14) 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.

SHADOW ROSES (photo art) & THE BIG PICTURE (dream tanka) by Roswila

THE BIG PICTURE

she keeps on trying
to turn the big picture
into black and white,
even though each time details
and defining contrasts get lost


[tanka on a dream of 5-13-14. Yeah, when I'm deeply upset, especially over a long period of time, I tend to slip into "black and white" thinking. However, in contrast (pun intended), there's another level to this little dream. That maybe some unclarity and shapelessness is OK, even welcome if you will. That I don't have to fuss so at everything. Then there's the idea of "the big picture," which can keep me busy for a while thinking on it. And there's even more as I vaguely recall I was doing this for a very dear, and in waking life, ill friend. As if I were trying to simplify the actual overwhelming amount of information she's gathered that she now has to make a decision on. How like a dream to have layer after layer. And, honestly, it still has a life of its own separate from whatever my consciousness may manage to torture out of or project on to it. As does any dream, IMHO. Photo art "Shadow Roses" (4-24-14 008v5) by Roswila, which is very much like the photo image I saw in this dream but hopefully a more successful black and white picture.]

CELEBRATE OLDER AMERICANS MONTH: MAY 2014!

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.

TWILIGHT AERIE (photo art) & "a distant bird ..." (non-dream haiku) by Roswila

a distant bird glides
this way and that through the blue
the patchwork mountains


[non-dream haiku written 5-7-14. Photo art "Twilight Aerie" (4-19-14 003v6) by Roswila -- I've posted other versions of it here as I have a tendency to become fond of the shapes in some of my pix, and enjoy changing colors, textures, and orientations to see how that effects them.]

CELEBRATE OLDER AMERICANS MONTH: MAY 2014!

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.

DANCING AROUND (photo art) & WHAT'S MORE (dream tanka series) by Roswila

WHAT'S MORE

we're definitely
attracted to each other
though he looks rather
young for me, this rapidly
aging if independent senior

he seems quite impressed
not only with my knowledge
about his dance group's
various myth-based themes,
but my enthusiasm

yet his question's still
a surprise, my thoughts being
on our flirtation:
he offers me employment
helping raise funds for his troupe

now, it's not that I
couldn't use a salary
things are tough these days
but I can afford even less
to take on the work world again

so a job is more
likely to be an unhealthy
choice for me to make
than the romance this faker
casually baited me with

maybe this is what
I get for having walked away
from that older man,
not trusting he was at last
available and drawn to me

the heat of the new
the cool return of the old:
neither without risk,
what's more, what do I really
want at this ripe old age?

perhaps only the heady fun of flirtation
and the peace of walking straight on alone


[seven tanka capped by a two-liner on a dream of 5-10-14. Photo art "Dancing Around" (4-24-14 003v13) by Roswila]

CELEBRATE OLDER AMERICANS MONTH: MAY 2014!

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.

ALL THAT GLITTERS (photo art) & ON APPEARANCES (2 dream tanka w/2 liner) by Roswila

ON APPEARANCES

yes, I'd really like
to believe my young brother
will grow up fine,
that his early celebrity
won't undo him completely

but my gut tells me
all that glitters is not gold
no matter how good
he looks, and he's going so fast
I can't even hug him briefly

I quickly reach out
urgently tapping his arm
as he's rushed away
by his agents, and whisper
"I do love you, you know, I do..."

his golden mien remains unruffled
but who knows about his heart


[three tanka capped by a two-liner on a dream of 5-10-14. Clearly another dream about my recently deceased brother. Photo art "All That Glitters" (4-15-14 020v2) by Roswila]

CELEBRATE OLDER AMERICANS MONTH: MAY 2014!

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.