TWISTED THINKING (photomorph) & THE BLACK & WHITE CAT (dream tanka series w/2-liner) by Roswila

THE BLACK & WHITE CAT

the black and white cat
given into her care and arms
just will not hold still,
will not stop struggling
intensely for its freedom

it's not yet bitten
or scratched her as it wriggles
but there's no saying
it won't, if only because
of its escalating panic

then she just lets go
she's had it with the struggle,
maybe the cat will
recall that the last time she'd cared
for it had worked out quite well

but it leaps from her
no longer containing arms
like a gunshot
she hopes it will know to come
back to her if it meets with trouble

and if it doesn't, that she'll be able
to forgive herself for letting go


[tanka series capped by a two-liner on a dream of 12-11-14. This is one with two very different levels. One about knowing when to let go and also accepting that one cannot/should not try to control everything. The other -- and more difficult one to deal with -- is about my struggle with black and white thinking. Yeah, the cat is out of this old bag on that one. Old rigid thinking patterns are running wild right now. But at least part of me is able to observe and not totally identify with them. Or maybe I'll just blame it all on Seasonal Affect Disorder (and that's only partly a joke). Photomorph "Twisted Thinking" (11-26-14 001v7a) 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.

Ace of Swords in Roswila's Taiga Tarot & "this wild speech ..." (non-dream tanka w/2-liner) by Roswila

this wild speech rising
out of your mouth is not yours
but his, reaching out
from beyond the last door
as he dared not when living

don't fear this bright shadow's words
but welcome their mystery


[tanka with two-liner based on a Tarot reading of 12-9-14. I'd been thinking a great deal about my brother who died just a year ago. Almost feeling haunted by him. So I did a Tarot reading to see if I could understand what he was saying to me. And what I was saying to myself about myself based on our sad and ultimately estranged relationship. I did not accomplish any of this, but the reading did help me to become comfortable with not knowing. This quote by the poet Rilke (in Letters to a Young Poet, 1903) says it all much better than I:

"…I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

And even should no answers come, that will be like so much else I live with. Secret ingredients in the elixir of life, if you will.

Image with tanka: the Ace of Swords, from my deck in (glacially slow) progress, The Taiga Tarot (tanka: "we fly or homestead/swim deep or burn/the midnight oil/what connects/is what pierces"), & Poem 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.

STIRRING THE BREW (photomorph) & THE MEAT OF THE MATTER (dream tanka series w/2 two-liners) by Roswila

THE MEAT OF THE MATTER

that annoying gal
stashes her food garbage behind
my file cabinet
I ask that at least she seal
it all up and she complies

before I make
the time to toss it out
the smell becomes rank
then I realize she'd not even
bothered to sort for recycling

just as I think "You want it done right? Do it
yourself," Obama* appears with a shopping cart

it's filled with steaks,
obviously expensive
sirloins and fillets --
he's buying meats for a state dinner
to be held this evening

we're both scandalized
that much of what he's selected
won't meet government
accounting office regulations
and therefore he'll have to foot the bill

the government,
it seems, will only pay if
something is hard
to obtain and prepare:
ease, that is, is costly

"D.Y.I." are the call letters of the day and
"Effort and Elbow Grease and Grit," the motto


[tanka series with two interspersed two-liners on a dream of 12-10-14. *President Barack Obama. This dream was a puzzlement all the way through the drafting of the poem. It did not open up for me at all until those last three lines at the end sort of fell out of my pen, circumventing my resistance. BTW, this is largely about getting back to fully embracing the hard, on-going work of improving my health/weight. Photomorph "Stirring the Brew" (11-4-14 026v7) 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 THE DARK (photomorph) & SHE (dream tanka series w/2-liner) by Roswila

SHE

he demands a work
self-evaluation,
I'm new to the job
and though I don't like his
imperious tone, I give it

it's easier
to speak in the third person,
being compliant
stings less that way: "she's quite sharp
but tends to go a bit slow"

and my honesty's
tempered by that sharpness,
as I know better
than to point out that having had no
proper training "she" must go slow

I bite back a sardonic kicker that
maybe someday "she'll" learn to read minds


[tanka series capped by a two-liner on a dream of 12-9-14. Photomorph "In the Dark" (11-26-14 009v6a) 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.

RAIN DANCE (photomorph) & DISEXISTESSENTIALISM (mixed format dream poem) by Roswila

DISEXISTESSENTIALISM*

she denies writing
the letter criticizing
the photo art style
"Disexistessentialism,"
though I saw her typing it

more disturbing than her denial, her intense
scorn for my interest in the art form

I seek the safety
of my room and find that odd man
staring at my stuff,
I'd left it spread on the bed
forgetting he'd be sleeping there

he'd invited himself, not hearing my "no,"
acting as if he were a prince of the blood

sigh, I'd do better
to pay attention to what's
at hand to be done:
shunting that rain leaking in my
window, to the outside runoff

when an inside need
of the moment conflicts
with an outside one
a flood of denial prevents
many a dreaded drought


[tanka series with two interspersed two-liners on a dream of 12-8-14 (posted 12-9-14). *A word from the dream, said: DIS-ex-IST-e-SSEN-tialism." Given the meanings of the two words in it and their prefix, I think of it now as meaning psychological denial. Though in the dream it was simply the name of an art style, the pronunciation of which I kept forgetting. In a way, psychological denial is an art form. Its meaning comes from how it's applied and then viewed. Photomorph "Rain Dance" (12-7-14 005v4) & Poem by Patricia Kelly (C) 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.

THE LIDS ARE BLOWN (photomorph) & I SPY WITH MY LITTLE DREAM I ... (dream narrative) by Roswila

I SPY WITH MY LITTLE DREAM I ...

panic in the ground level dining room!

what the frack? thinks the dream I
there's no way to understand this ruckus
other than as a cry for help

at least this fast food room isn't crowded
yet with diners, as the workers rush out
to the sidewalk in a tumult

then the dream I notes the considerable
staff of the fancy lower level
dining room boiling up the stairs

ah, they must have heard the fuss
even way below in their carpeted,
wood-paneled room, and are rising
en masse to assist the ground level workers

though there's no sign of what's caused
the panic still clearly roiling among
the ground level dining room staff,
the arrival of concerned folk
who do the same sort of work as they
begins to calm them down

there's a chance, whispers a still trembling
waitress as calmly as she can to a crying
young bus boy, that we'll now
not only be listened to, but understood


[narrative on a dream of 12-6-14. This is the second recent dream (see yesterday's post) in which being in the position of an observer was important. There's much more to both dreams than that, but it is an important aspect. I'm hoping it's presence indicates a move toward creating a helpful distance between me and my troublesome emotions/thoughts. A further "disidentification" with them, if you will. Photomorph "The Lids Are Blown" (11-26-14 009v7) 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.

TRAPPED (photomorph) & SOMETHING'S CHANGED (dream tanka series) by Roswila

SOMETHING'S CHANGED

Bill's* in a dream...again
and I'm happy to see him,
especially as
he's leaving the hospital
after only a brief stay

it's quite obvious
he's in fine fettle as he's
flirting with women,
hugging those who'll let him
and smiling boyishly at all

something's changed, yet I
can't put my finger on what:
there's an odd distance
between us, as if I were
now only an observer

this does not feel wrong
just sad though in a way
liberating, as if
some net I'd been unknowingly
tangled up in has vanished


[tanka series on a dream of 12-5-14. *Former President Bill Clinton, a familiar and friendly dream visitor of mine. This was one of those vaguely lucid dreams (knowing one is dreaming, as one is dreaming). Which can account for that sense of being an observer. However, I think observing has further significance that I'll address in tomorrow's post of a dream I had the following night. Photomorph "Trapped" (8-23-09 5966ev3) 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.