CHASM (photomorph) & ON GETTING BACK TO WORK (dream tanka series w/2 liner) by Roswila

ON GETTING BACK TO WORK

it's more like a freight
elevator (cavernous!)
than for passengers,
easily accommodating
two full crews of office workers

even permitting
a large swath of open space
between the two groups,
who lob their opposing views
about everything across it

I'm vaguely amused
by the crackling atmosphere
("West Side Story" muzak
would fit right in), nevertheless,
am deeply relieved to get off

I'm five minutes late
for a temporary job where
I had worked many
years ago, and resolve to allow
more travel time tomorrow

provided, of course,
I can actually find where
I'm to work today
for although familiar, there's no
staff person in reception

only a long desk
with a sign-in sheet (and no
instructions) greets me
I feel thoroughly bemused
and frightfully unprepared

though modernized now
I much prefer the old offices,
too much has been changed
but not for the better
at least not by my lights

and today's prideful workers rush about polarized,
the huge gaps between them like rents in the earth's crust


[tanka series capped by a two-liner on a dream of 3-17-15. I've since had an answer from my dreams (on a subsequent night) to my question about the painful mood this dream ultimately expresses. I'll probably post the poem on that dream tomorrow. Photomorph "Chasm" (1-17-15 010v10b) by Roswila; this is one of those pix that looks better, methinks, in a larger version, so try clicking on it if you'd like.]

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.