RETRIEVING FUCHSIA (photomorph) & "deep in a pruned..." (non-dream haiku) by Roswila

deep in a pruned
drought dry bush: trembling
fuchsia blossoms


[haiku written1-26-17. Photomorph "Retrieving Fuchsia" (1-26-17 022v2a) 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.

SWEPT AWAY (photomorph) & A POINTED QUESTION (non-dream prose poem) by Roswila

A POINTED QUESTION

she raises her deeply sad
young face to mine: do you
ever think that it's all just
too much, she asks; taken
aback at this tearful stranger's
genuine pointed question,
one I've had myself and
too many times, I only
think to say "Yes...
but it gets better..." even as
she walks quickly away
leaving me to wonder if
I've failed her; shouldn't
something other than a cliché
answer be retrievable from
the 50 year gap in our ages;
but after all, she is so very
young, no more than a freshman,
and has a longer path ahead
yet to hoe than I at 73; how
could I have added to her
bruising burden that it will
also get worse again, and
again, like a roller coaster
ride on which sometimes one
does good to simply hang on
with an agonizingly cramped
spirit, as it speeds into
the next, and the next unforeseen
precipitous fall; yes, child, it is
all too much, and too much of
the time, but it is the ride we're
wedded to; one might as well find
something about it to enjoy before
the next harrowing plummet,
like the sun warming
one's back or even just
the memory of the wind
bearing the heavenly scent
of sea mist roses from
the cliff's edge


[non-dream prose poem written 1-26-17. This happened in Isla Vista, the town that grew up around the University of California at Santa Barbara. I often walk there, sometimes to shop, and almost always taking pix and making notes for poems both coming and going. The young woman in this poem queried me just as I'd put away my camera after taking pix of some beautiful, gnarly tree roots. Photomorph "Swept Away" (1-27-17 004v2a) 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.

PURPLE ON HER MIND (photomorph) & THE EXCLUDED BODY (dream narrative) by Roswila

THE EXCLUDED BODY

she wants a long hug for her birthday as it will help
heal the breach in our friendship, and so I stand
just right for a meeting up, and in a place where
we won't be in anyone's way as we embrace

I know how physically healing hugs can be,
but am a bit concerned about her lower back
injury: she shouldn't stand too long and maybe I
shouldn't touch her there, though the heat of my hand
would certainly help she's not one to try anything
new and this long hug's more than new enough
even for a gift

I wind up being very careful of her back:
placing one hand between her shoulders, high
above the injury in safe territory and holding
the other hand in the air several inches above
the problem spot, knowing the human hand
radiates energy that's comforting even
at a bit of a remove

as we hug somewhat tentatively, a little uncertain
if this rapprochement is fully welcomed by us both,
I look over her head toward the horizon where
the billboard height panoramic photo a mutual
friend took of all of us at her party, shines along
the long spine of the foothills in shades of purple

I think it quite odd that it was taken only of
everyone's head, as if that's all that matters, all
that folk might want to remember, then laugh as I
pun to myself as I continue to hug the birthday gal:
well, there's the head, but there's also a "spine"
and "feet" (of a sort) for each person, now
all that's needed is to fill in the rest
of the excluded body


[narrative on a dream of 1-24-17. Photomorph "Purple on Her Mind" (1-14-17 002v8) 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.

FRUIT OF A DARK SUN (photo) & THE LIKES OF WHICH (non-dream free verse poem) by Patricia Kelly

THE LIKES OF WHICH

shine on, sun! bake your light
and heat so deeply into my heart
that in the darkest and coldest
times your warmth radiates: in
the smile or embrace of a friend,
in the sound of rain through drought
dry branches, in a line of poetry
I've just written that surprises me
with it's acuity or small portion
of beauty; so shine on, sun! let me
store your heat like a battery,
reminding me not all of aging's
about getting old, that there is that
in it's inevitable advance that offers
opportunities for renewal, and even
for lighting a blaze the likes of which
one never has before


[non-dream free verse poem written 1-25-17. Photo "Fruit of a Dark Sun" (1-18-17 009v2a) 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.

WAITING FOR THE HANDWRITING (photo) & THE PRISON CELL (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

THE PRISON CELL

no matter which way I turn,
there you are, blocking my way,
a blank, unyielding wall on which
I never get to write my lonely story,
much less the passionate one
I yearn to create with you

I suppose I could be grateful that like
some ancient telamon* your constant
presence holds off the threat
of the cracking ceiling above my head

but what about this floor that I pace,
wearing it thinner and thinner with each
thumping of my lopsided
arthritic gait:

I could crash through with you
into who knows what
fresh hell


[non-dream free verse poem written 1-17-17. *Telamon: a male figure used as a pillar of support in classical architecture. Photo "Waiting for the Handwriting" (4-27-15 051v2) 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.

WAITING FOR THE FIRE (photomorph) & A MATTER OF MIND (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

A MATTER OF MIND

honestly, I mumble to no one in particular,
I didn't want that annoying woman dead!
just out of my life, out of my face all
the time with her arrogant assumptions
and I really didn't want them to turn her
into a zombie, one of those scary
nauseating creatures, but worst of all,
if they had to turn her, why into this
pitiful slave version, bereft of all real
hunger but to seek approval by doing
what pleases her masters; I can barely
stand to watch the vague remnants
of ego in her dirty, melting face
as she calls out in a cracking voice
"See? I've even learned to drive!"
I know they'd ordered her to do so
because a wild zombie hoard has been
sighted outside our small compound and
will be attacking soon, their hunger for
human flesh still ravenously alive (irony
intended), and we'll need all the vehicles
and drivers we can muster to make good
our escape; I'm gently shoved into the
front seat next to the tractable zombie at
the wheel and told to be her anchor
in the present as it seems once tamed
and wild hunger no long drives it, what
little's left of a zombie's mind wanders
in out and out of time, making for a
rather useless slave; horror on horror,
I think, wondering how I'll ever hold
on to my own mind now knowing all
all of this, and a burning feeling sinks
right through me: it doesn't
even matter any more


[free verse poem on a dream of 1-22-17. Yup, the day leading up to this dream was as bad as all that. Photomorph "Waiting for the Fire" (1-18-17 003v8a) 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.

IN THE HUNTER'S EYE (photomorph) & THE LAW (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE LAW

dish after little dish
of her favorite binge foods
line up for her signature,
their aromas rising and mixing
in the air like long fingers,
and the promise of their
textures dangerously seductive

she signs quickly away,
it's nothing like signing a will,
she thinks, I'm not going
to leave any of these most desirable
treats behind, they'll be gobbled
right down as soon as I've finished
all these signatures

as each binge food is signed on a blank
line hanging from its small, animal print
or feather patterned dish, it moves
on past her as if grazing
across a savanna

then she notes the same full dishes
starting to come around again, but
sans any of the writing she'd just done
beneath them; she looks up
puzzled and asks of the empty
air "Should I have had my name
notarized on each?"

no, she thinks, looking back down,
anxious to begin the feasting,
nothing can make this monumental
binge legal, the only law obeyed
here is the law of the jungle:
hunger, forever wild and circling


[free verse poem on a dream of 1-20-17. Photomorph "In the Hunter's Eye" (5-27-11 11035ev6) 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.