BY A DIFFERENT LIGHT (photo) & THERE'S WORSE THINGS (mixed format dream poem) by Roswila

THERE ARE WORSE THINGS

it's absolutely
delightful! my New York City
friend's visiting me
I take her on a little tour
of our West Coast community

I gesture briefly
toward the building going up
across the roadway
expressing an annoyance that
it will block the mountain view,

and notice my nails:
where's the bright red nail polish
I put on last night?
I know I painted my nails
a shiny stoplight red

I ask my dear friend
how the polish could just vanish from
all ten of my nails
she smiles and shrugs, adding that she,
too, lost all nail polish overnight

yet no one could have removed it, I respond,
especially without waking either of us up

though I suppose there are worse things
to lose to the swift passage of time

even the impending loss of a mountain view
seems small in the light of a friend's smile


[tanka series capped by three two-liners on a dream of 4-24-15 & written during my recent blogging break. I chose this one to post today because I was just looking at the actual building construction and mountains that are referenced in this dream. Today I was brought out of the sadness at the thought of future loss into the beautiful day by a gorgeous red winged black bird swooping right across my view, with the lilting of songbirds as its musical score. (There's a poem percolating on this, too.) Photo "By A Different Light" (4-21-15 002d) 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.