ALLUVION (photomorph) & SO, WHAT ELSE IS NEW? (dream tanka series) by Roswila

SO, WHAT ELSE IS NEW?
(a novel in three chapters)

Introduction:

swept up in a flood
I can do no better than
hopelessly flounder
but so does every living thing
all tossed together, lost ...

consciousness returns
I'm beached somewhere in Africa
the shoreline littered
with animals and humans
all ever so slowly coming to

before I can warn
a reviving seal, the lion
it's tangled up with
wakes and I walk away
dreading what will ensue


Chapter One:

she purports to aim
to create a totally new
world from the debris
but is actually searching to
reconstruct the old from the rubble


Chapter Two:

he seeks permission
to bomb the neighboring group
its philosophy
is not congruent with
the new post-flood thinking


Chapter Three:

another student and I
explore a new understanding
it's quite a challenge
to wrap our minds around
much less to put into words

but it holds the hope
for creating a whole new world
the teacher stops us
pointing out the philosophy's
simply hoary old dualism


Epilogue:

why are we building
again so soon, before we've
even remembered,
before we can truly learn
from how we wound up destroyed


[tanka series in five parts on an extremely long dream of 3-8-15. And this wasn't the only dream of the evening. After drafting this dream poem in the middle of the night I went back to sleep and had a bunch more dreams. One a rather sweet but doomed romance (he was married so I wouldn't go through with it, and there was other stuff I've forgotten). Another more than usually long one, specifically naming Santa Barbara, over and over, and having to do with various foods, and their preparation and storage. (This one had a lot of group and then individual interactions.) The last had another romance theme, very vague, and was set in Manhattan city streets. The "male" wasn't human, but a tall, dark, shiny, very angular and slim robot/alien that was somehow actually alive. And rather endearing, at least to those few of us who took the time to know it and didn't just react in fear to its strangeness. I won't even try to find the connecting thread that usually runs through the dreams of any single night. I'd be here until dinner time. It just occurred to me, though, that in a way, the first's major image foreshadowed the evening's continuing dream flood. Photomorph "Alluvion" (2-28-15 002v10e) 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.