41 year-old Star Trek poster; & SPACED OUT (mixed format dream poem) by Roswila

SPACED OUT

so distractible
that I almost can't begin paying
attention to the
dream, it takes my dear long-gone
woman friend's walk in to focus me

well, "hobble in" might better suit as a description
of how she makes it up the stairs to the common room

why is she here? much
less the others now arriving,
each with their own place
and each with their unique talent
or skill to offer this household

household! nuh-uh,
more like a huge space ship with crew
readying for blastoff,
I think, laughing at my sci-fi
metaphor even as it rings true

that guy over there
just has to be The Captain,
watching over it
all and telling arrivals where
to set up their work stations

and she simply has
to be in charge of Communications,
that complicated
gear she's assembling reminds me
of Uhura's station on Star Trek*

I go on figuring out what position each of the dozen
folk fills as they get on with their pre-blast off work

and what is my job,
I think ... ah-hah! I'm who makes it
a baker's dozen,
connecting these many disparate
dots into a clear story line

she who sensed way back at the beginning
that this was going to be one spaced out trip!


[tanka series with three two-liners on a dream of 5-3-15, written during my blog break. When I awoke I immediately associated "my job" to that part of our brains called the "left brain interpreter." The part that makes stories (i.e., to my way of understanding, sense) of all the info flooding into our brains at any given moment. I've even suggested here before that maybe it's that part of our brains that is responsible for dreams. *Uhura was the Chief Communications Officer in the original ("Classic") Star Trek T.V. show. I was, and still am, a Trekker (Star Trek fan), attending the earliest conventions decades ago. Image: photo of a now 41 year-old poster that I purchased at a Star Trek convention; the poster itself still hangs on my living room wall]

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.