STUDY FOR LIGHT & SHADOW (photo) & ON COOKING THE BOOKS (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

ON COOKING THE BOOKS

my ex-mother-in-law, Jocasta,*
enters the living room
and there goes any chance
of this visit with my former family
being a pleasant one

Jocasta (one might say "affectionately" Jo
if affection didn't always run screaming
from her vicinity) starts nit picking
and blaming before she even lowers
her knotted old bones into the nearest chair

family legend has always said that Jo
had been exceedingly generous in her
long lost youth, and had never asked for,
nor even it seemed expected acknowledgment

yet one wonders why no one (not even Jo
herself) ever noticed how this dearth
of appreciation was piling up on the dark
side of her life's lengthening ledger

eventually taking over the entire balance
sheet ... after all, shadow's greatest
and most insidious skill is to cook
even honestly well intentioned books


[free verse poem on a dream of 8-1-15. Oy! This one has layer after layer. *Here's a link to the Jocasta complex in psychology. I had to Google the name to refresh my memory on this sort of "reverse Oedipal complex." (When I woke I only knew the name was familiar.) Then there's how I've been feeling possessed by my shadow. (Jung once said about the shadow, "How do you find the lion that's swallowed you?") There's also some further looking into familial and other types of relationship history. And yesterday's dream was (mostly) at the level of the present, while this one goes back a generation. There are also other strands I'll probably tug on later to see where they lead. BTW, I find it wryly amusing that that closing image can be associated with food preparation. I've been having a devil of time with food cravings for some time now. Photo "Study for Light & Shadow" (7-12-15 003v3) by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers, as the above is), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

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until next time, keep dreaming,

[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** 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.