TAKING THEIR BOWS (photo) & "palm fronds glisten..." (non-dream haiku) by Roswila

palm fronds glisten
in the late afternoon sun
silence stretches out


[non-dream haiku written 1-7-15. Photo "Taking Their Bows" (1-17-15 004v4) 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.

* * * *

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.

WALKING THE RAILS (photo) & IN A DARK TUNNEL (mixed format dream poem) by Roswila

IN A DARK TUNNEL

my friend and I wait
for the subway train to stop
so we can get on
and though it slows it passes
the station before stopping

we look down the dark
tunnel it sits in and decide
on walking to it,
after all, why else is it there
but for passengers to board

just as we reach its
open side doors they slam tight
the train whizzing off
leaving my friend and me in
the echoing dusty tunnel

distress and irritation two perturbed friends

I suddenly recall hearing that homeless
camp down here in abandoned stations

as my friend and I trek back toward the light
I also remember to be grateful


[tanka trio capped by a monoku and pair of two-liners on a dream of 1-14-15. Photo "Walking the Rails" (1-5-15 024v3) 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.

WRAPPING IT UP (photo) & THE GREAT ONION (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE GREAT ONION

she'd heard they were selling dolls of The Great Onion,
that young blonde girl she once was who sang and danced,
dazzling her way into the blazing eye of fame only
to burn out rapidly, a sacrifice to the gods
of accomplishment and appearance

she slowly peruses the full-color ads for this surprisingly
look-a-like doll based on her child self -- tan, smooth
skinned and long-limbed, with that butter-wouldn't-melt-
in-her-mouth sweet smile -- but she also remembers

the layer after layer after layer that wrapped suffocatingly
around beneath the surface, which no reconstruction
ever could (or would even bother) to touch upon,

those layers of clingy, engulfing translucence she spent
her adult years painfully exposing, then peeling off
one-by-one, and releasing into life's passing winds

no hint of tears rises in her once famous blue eyes
for she does not mind having been The Great Onion,
nor does she mind the vague memories of those early
years that trail behind her on sunny days, as inevitable
and inaccurate a recollection now of her on-going
becoming as a shadow


[free verse poem on a dream of 1-13-15. That moniker, "The Great Onion," is straight from the dream. I've often thought of dream/inner work as being like peeling the layers of an onion, so it's not surprising to have it show somehow in a dream. What is surprising -- and hopeful -- is the closing stanza. BTW, I usually center my poems here. However, this one's long lines look and read better left justified. Doing so, though, created other formatting problems and questions. Neither centered nor left justified looks right for the title under that centered photo. Yet left justifying that photo looks odd, too. Not to mention the different arrangements I tried looked one way in Chrome (passable), and another way (out of alignment) in I.E. Ack! So I've accepted the not ideal arrangement above as the lesser of several "evils" since I'm not willing to set it all up in an html table. That's more work than even this wannabe perfectionist is willing to do. Especially as there's no guarantee I'd be happy with the results anyway. Photo "Wrapping It Up" (6-15-09 2435v3) 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.

* * * *

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.

FAN DANCER (photo) & HOW TO BE A CON ARTIST (dream tanka trio) by Roswila

HOW TO BE A CON ARTIST

a con can be noticed
when the second stage develops
though marks never do,
even once the third stage gels
there’s small chance of outing

if stuck in stage three
one tactic to advance is to
out the con one’s self:
announce “It’s a Con!” in surprise
and marks will leap to deny this

the fourth stage completes
the hard foundational work
the rest is gravy
only one challenge left
the conscience of the conner


[re-post of a tanka trio on a dream of 11-4-11. I've had this marked for possible re-posting for a while now. Not only for what it addresses, but for the writing itself. I wish more of my dream tanka moved along as smoothly within the form's structure. BTW, I have drafted a free verse poem on a dream from last night. But it's one of those that's going to need a great deal of work to get it all down on the page, much less polish up the writing. And for some reason I find free verse even more challenging to write than formal poems, like tanka and dreamku/haiku. Additionally, the poem is based on vague (but compelling) dream recall. I'll probably have it ready to post tomorrow. Photo "Fan Dancer" (4-29-11 10826ev2) 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.

BOSKY FALL (photo) & "the sudden free fall..." (dreamku) by Roswila

the sudden free fall
of the lift -- surviving
hitting bottom


[dreamku written in January 2007, revised today. Yes, so far, I have always survived hitting bottom, as I did this time. The bigger problem? Getting off that dang bottom. BTW, I find it odd in a way to revise a poem as small as a dreamku. But sometimes later on I see a way to make it truer to the dream. And they do occasionally need tweaking for clarity's sake once the dream is less immediate in memory. The latter was the case here. Photo "Bosky Fall" (1-5-15 010v2) 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.

BRACHIATE (photomorph) & "facing the westering sun..." (non-dream monoku) by Roswila

facing the westering sun birds in high branches


[non-dream monoku written 1-7-15. Photomorph "Brachiate" (11-26-14 001v7a) 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.

* * * *

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.

WITHDRAWAL (photomorph) & RUNNING WITH A NEW GANG (dream narrative) by Roswila

RUNNING WITH A NEW GANG

she's never let him have it both barrels before,
and since she's leaving this ersatz family anyway,
she might as well go with a clear conscience

but, as she'd sadly anticipated, his life-threatening
denial holds, not a flinch, not a hint in his eyes
that anything of her love-fueled tirade is getting
through, much less meaning something
to him, her only brother

even as he keeps trying to step around her verbal
barrage as if he's headed someplace far behind
her, she stands firm: he may deny it all, but he'll
have to hear her out this one time

for she's already begun to run with a new gang,
folk with a wide variety of vehicles they manage
to pace to each other, who call and respond,
back and forth openly as they roam
the wild and winding back roads

and this is her last ditch attempt to say
her piece, and maybe share a meaningful
good-bye, before leaving him
to the all consuming dust


[narrative on a dream of 1-10-15. BTW, it was my deceased brother in the dream. But he represents many more people than that, rolled into one intense and sad image. Photomorph "Withdrawal" (12-2-14 028v8) 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.

* * * *

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.