THE VISITATION (photomorph) & TWO ON ONE NIGHT (pair of mixed format dream poems) by Roswila

TWO ON ONE NIGHT

I

my pillow's attacking!
you'd think it being the nature
of the stuffy beast
it'd be trying for a smothering
but, no, it's going to eat me whole

as it opens wide
for a big toothless swallow
I scream out in fear-
fueled rage: I hate you!
and again I yell: I hate you!

the air of my room
seems thick with all sorts of threats
I know if I can
change body position, so too
will this horrendous dream

but my attention
gets hooked by the presence
of my little brother --
though only six years old, he
too, is something to be feared

I demand that he
go back to his own bedroom
though where that is
I don't know, as suddenly
I can't recall my home's layout

deep panic rears up --
now even my memory's
betraying me


II

our stepmother's left
tickets for us at the ticket
window for the Disney show
but what an arduous trip
just to find the amphitheatre

the evening's cool
and my grown brother and I
have arrived on time
I choose the row's end seat, to
be next to my brother only

maybe having me
all to himself will begin to
heal how I've failed him
I saw this show years ago
and it emits a gentle magic


[two tanka series, the first part capped by a dreamku, on two separate dreams of 4-19-15 (dreamed/written during my late spring blog break). Both brother and stepmother are deceased. And from the strong associations I have to them and other images in the dreams, they reference some living folk and current situations, as well. BTW, I have actually found that if I change body position when going back to sleep it's always a different dream. But if I return to the same position quite often what I'd been dreaming will continue. So that moment in the first dream's third tanka was ever so mildly lucid. Photomorph "The Visitation" (5-27-15 017v9a) 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.