BROKEN ARROW (photomorph) & ALL THAT GLITTERS (four dream narratives) by Roswila

ALL THAT GLITTERS
(or, A Busy Night Before New Year's Eve)

Dream One:

she says, with no disappointment or accusation
at all, "You gave that to me before, remember?"
and I check out the medium sized cardboard
box, lifting its surprising heft and wondering
what is flopping around in it; then I open
the unsealed top flaps and see the stash of deep
purple glitter I now recall giving her for her
birthday years ago; it's a delightful sight as I
lift and strain hands full through my fingers:
I've always been a sucker for purple, and for
anything that glitters


Dream Two:

following a mix of intuition and careful
reasoning, I manage to fix something for her;
she assumes from this that I'm an expert and tells
her friends I'm going to mend the shelves for her;
before I can demur I become interested in
figuring out what the problem is: a three
section shelf system is secured to a wall,
the dark section on the right is a bit lopsided
and loose, and somehow I know it'll just take some
careful observation and judicious experimenting
to fix it; the woman sees my interest is hooked
and says that the key to unlock the right hand
section is hung inside the narrow, pale pink
middle section; but my gut tells me to go right
to work realigning the right hand shelves as they
were never locked and don't need to be:
it's how they're slotted together at the top,
nearest the pink shelves, that's the problem


Dream Three:

as I'm doing my work a man who'd been watching
comes up to me and asks me on a date; I have an
immediate "good take" on him and say yes; later,
as I'm waiting in a crowded ground floor lobby
for the elevator, I move through the people to stand by
who I think is the guy who asked me out but it's not him;
however, the stranger is friendly and comments
with a big smile on my manner of dress: "That's quite
a mix of different styles and patterns, isn't it?" I look
at my outfit and can only agree, nothing really matches
but somehow I like the upshot, a sort of nouveau hippie
look, I think, and respond to him: "Yeah, but it seems
to be working for me, I just got asked out on a date
for the first time in ages."


Dream Four:

is it a new type of performance art? it seems as soon as
something is read and/or performed it's destroyed;
this style spreads rapidly and a nearly human-sized,
sentient owl who's a demolition expert takes on the job
of ending an entire building of performances with the
special, massively intense fire that's his trademark; he
perches on a ledge just across from the target building
and shoots one ordinary fire arrow after another
at the building's basement windows; then he nocks
the coups de grace arrow, its fletching lit by
the incredibly destructive fire he's famous for:
he releases the shot, it hits its mark with an all
consuming "whoosh," even as he goes up in flames,
his fine feathers having been brushed by
the burning fletching as it flew from his bow:
live by the fire, die by the flame


[narratives on four dreams of 12-30-16. BTW, when I call dream writing a "narrative" that does not mean there's no creative writing in it. E.g., the ending of one is often where my conscious mind takes the dream. That is, some aspect of the significance I see for the symbol(s) as I write the narrative. And the symbols in that last dream have most of my attention right now. I've done some preliminary searches on owl symbolism, as well as "arrow," and "bow and arrow," but still haven't had an "ahHAH!" experience to tell me I'm hearing what this archer owl symbolism is saying. What also has my interest is how very different the four dreams are from each other. I don't think I've ever recalled a string of dreams from one night without a very clear thread drawing them together. I do see a very vague progression in these four that gets a bit clearer between dream three and four. I'm sure these dreams will generate some interesting thoughts and Tarot reading as the New Year comes in. Speaking of which: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Photomorph "Broken Arrow" (6-6-09 1887v2a) 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), 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 other blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post); TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT (photomorph) & CROWDED OUT (mixed format dream poem) by Roswila

CROWDED OUT

he saunters up
and stands leaning into me
dressed only in a short
silky bathrobe, well, it's late,
I think, and sleep time's close

then the thought of how
much of his bare skin is near me
sets me atwitter
inside, like some horny teenager,
thankfully, he walks away quickly

but also sadly,
as any contact with him
is very welcome
and I sigh, going into my large
bathroom which he'd just vacated

I'd swear the absence of his presence
encloses me like smoke or incense

enough so that I almost feel like
an invader in my own bathroom

and isn't that the way of it for me
with him: he crowds me out of myself

leaving me feeling homeless when he's here
and abandoned when he's gone


[three tanka and four two-liners on a dream of 12-29-16. Photomorph "Too Close for Comfort" (12-9-16 007v2c) 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), 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 other blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post); TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

FROZEN (photo) & "in the blue spirit..." ([non-dream] morph of classic Japanese poem) by Roswila

BLUE
(a Ryōkan morph*)

in the blue spirit, cold wind blowing
on the defeated heart, dust swirling


[(non-dream) "morphing" of a poem by the Japanese writer *Ryōkan Taigu (1758-1831): "In the blue heavens, cold goose calling. On the empty hills, leaves flying." We used to do this in the scifaiku group I participated in online. Someone would start an email chain with a morph of a classic haiku into a scifaiku. (And others would respond in turn in the scifaiku form, taking off from that person's morph.) But here I'm clearly taking Ryōkan's lovely, almost selfless poem to my own place of what might well be called self-pity. BTW, I say "almost selfless" about his poem because a self is there if only as the observer who wrote the poem. Photo "Frozen" (12-21-16 012v5) 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), 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 other blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post); TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

CIRCLING (photomorph) & DANCING AROUND (dream based prose poem) by Roswila

DANCING AROUND

I stand in the middle of a large empty
saloon dance floor as each of two men,
in full cowboy regalia, steps up in turn
to say hello to me; the first man circling
me in a skillful Old West, boot kicking,
hat tipping dance and then stepping back;
the second man moving in to say hello,
doing his best to replicate the same
circling dance, but clearly not as skilled
as the first and lacking a sense of rhythm,
but his heart shining through, unlike
the first man's which was masked
by his careful precision; and my choice
of partner? a no brainer, I go for feeling
over skill, taking the second man's
large hand in mine: "No need
to dance around," I say,
"You had me at hello"


[prose poem on a dream of 12-26-16. Photomorph "Circling" (10-15-14 024v8a) 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), 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 other blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post)

; TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

THE PERSISTENCE OF GREEN (photo) & AFTER A LONG DROUGHT (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

AFTER A LONG DROUGHT

tiny birds in the newly greening bushes
tweet "What a pity...what a pity..."
even on this gloriously sunny day,
the light on the ocean so bright
that squinting is mandatory,
and the soft, insistent lulling
of the lacey surf could lead
to a restful doze, and yet
and yet, the tiny birds
persist "What a pity...
what a pity..."


[non-dream free verse poem written 12-27-16. Photo "The Persistence of Green" (822-14 002v14) 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), 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 other blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post); TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

EMBEDDED BLUES (photomorph) & EXACTLY (tanka dream series) by Roswila

EXACTLY

as always, they haven't
really answered my question
(damn, that frosts me!)
and so, as I've now been doing
for years, I search the internet

I wonder (and only
half jokingly) if all the links that I
save (fruitless though they
be) one day will break my system
with their sheer numbers and weight

what am I searching for,
you ask? that's a good question,
it's exactly like
all the queries I make of my mind,
chasing answers I don't ever catch,

creating more and more
connections, an extensive web,
further embedding
myself in what I simply
refuse to accept I can't know


[tanka series on a dream of 12-25-16. Photomorph "Embedded Blues" (2-28-15 002v10f) 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), 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 other blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post); TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

DEEPLY BRUISED (photomorph) & ON SILENCING (dream narrative) by Roswila

ON SILENCING

"It's important," she says "extremely so, to let children
express their feelings and thoughts when someone close
to them dies...," but he instantly disagrees

and his reply's stern: "No, they must be protected
from that sort of hurt," claiming there's no way
to explain to a child what death is about

she answers slowly that that's not the issue
she's raising: children need to be encouraged to speak
and then be deeply listened to, rather than be told
what to think and feel by adults

besides, she adds, how much do we "grown ups"
really know about death, except for the loss

and there are many things that happen to the living
that seem like death, or rather what little we know of it

however, she goes on, what's most crucial
is that silencing a child, even gently by directing
her attention elsewhere, leaves her alone to wind up
carrying the remains of an essential part
of her true self with her for the rest of her life,
to walk always with death


[narrative on a dream of 12-24-16. I did briefly consider re-posting a more Christmas-like piece today. But this is the deeply autobiographical dream I recall from last night and just wrote about. To post anything else right now would feel like a silencing. (A further note: this issue of silencing also applies in my life to abuses I suffered, and have left the same sort of "remains.") BTW, I believe that adults, as well, need to be encouraged to express whatever they feel the need to around issues of loss and death. Photomorph "Deeply Bruised" (10-26-12 12214ev7a) 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), 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 other blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post); TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.