THE LION'S ROAR (photomorph) & LION (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

LION

the small dark, rather young man
and I are curled up together in bed
in my long ago third floor apartment,
waiting for sleep to come after much
struggle trying to work out our host
of painful differences, or at least
come to some mutual acceptance

I shift to get more comfortable
just as a huge, golden maned lion
appears out of nowhere, in powerful,
haughty mid-stride

it's the biggest lion I've ever seen
and it utterly terrifies me, I turn
to the man and see him staring
in wide eyed fear, too

all I can think is: why is it here?!
even as I am teased by the promise
of lion dream symbolism: such as
courage and protection and leadership,
not to mention facing one's shadow

but all we can do is stay frozen
in place and breathe as shallowly
as possible so as not to capture
this huge beast's attention

we watch as it pads steadily across
the room toward the glass terrace
doors, and it's suddenly standing
outside on the concrete terrace,
clearly seeking a way down, through
the three stories of empty air
to the front yard and street

and then the lion's gone, simply gone

were we just shown a way out
of our long entanglement
that we could not see, or was this
frightening, disruptive visit
just another incursion of ferocious
denial, another "lyin'" promise


[free verse poem on a dream of 3-16-16. The apartment was the one I lived in for 23 years in New York City (before I moved here to CA in 2008). Photomorph "The Lion's Roar" (4-19-14 003v5c) 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 other blogs: ROSWILA'S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA'S TAIGA TAROT; TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT; and THE MARKER TAROT.