SURF'S EDGE (photo art) & PUZZLING OVER PLOVERS (dream tanka series w/pair of 2-liners) by Roswila
PUZZLING OVER PLOVERS
the young dark haired boy
takes me on a test run to see
if I've learned it,
if the route to our school along
the sea's edge is still clear to me
I follow slowly
asking questions: what's it like
in the winter?
what happens when the sand
inevitably gets soggy?
he answers them all
over his shoulder as the gap
between us widens
and the beach becomes sodden
enough to make for tough passage
it's too early
in the season for this sea rise
but here it is
I turn toward drier sand
where plover nests abound
the problem now
to avoid trampling their nests
and the little eggs:
would pouring more sand on them
help or just hide them from the parents?
the boy can't hear me
as he's hurried on ahead
lost to the wind:
should I go on toward the school
or attend to the plover issue
or maybe to how tired I'm getting
of this chilly unstable footing
how no matter which way I turn
there's an incubating lesson
[tanka series capped by a pair of two-liners on a dream of 8-8-14. Photo art "Surf's Edge" (7-20-14 011v5) by Roswila]
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....".
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.