SUSPENDED (photo) & QUESTIONING (dream tanka series w/2-liner) by Roswila

QUESTIONING

a twelve question list
hangs in the air before her,
each, one of her life's
major issues requiring
her careful attention

they are all, oddly,
type set in black and white
when the emotional
impact of color would
be much more expected

and they march neatly
to the right edge of the page,
nary a question
mark going beyond, except
for issue number seven

seven goes over
the edge, dragging the eye from
airy mentation
into the deeps where fears
of self-termination lurk

she believed she'd dealt
with this question ages ago
and truly she had
for it warns only to remember
or be doomed to go over it

then question six grabs
her eye, it too tumbling past
its allotted space,
into a strangely enticing void
that glimmers infinitely

she looks back briefly
before following the arc
of six off the edge,
it's well past time to embody
this one in concerted action

to give generously of her effort and time
even if she never meets up with an answer


[tanka series capped by a two-liner on a dream of 3-13-15. Tarot associations heavily inform this dream for me, via the numbers. 12 = The Hanged Man (supported also by the list "hanging" in the air); 7 = I immediately thought of the Seven of Swords; and 6 = I immediately thought of the Six of Pentacles. The Hanged Man being the major influence and one of the Major Arcana in the Tarot led me to boil this dream down to that last two lines. As The Hanged Man (and to a large degree the dream) is largely about ego suspension. Ego with a very little "e," that is, attachment to and investment in conscious thoughts and beliefs. There's a mountain of stuff in this dream based on these Tarot associations (not to mention other things), so I'll have to end these comments here. BTW, if you're curious about these Tarot cards just search for them one at a time on my Tarot Gallery & Journal (blog search box is in upper left). Each has several posts I've made about it. Photo "Suspended" (8-10-09 5373ev2) 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....".

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‘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.