SURROUNDED BY SONG (photo) & "the sudden silence..." (non-dream haiku) by Roswila

the sudden silence
after the shower of bird song
the world shines


[non-dream haiku written 7-1-17. Photo "Surrounded by Song" (4-19-17 014) 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.

LOVE KNOT (photo) & WHAT I'D LOVE (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

WHAT I'D LOVE

I'd love to reincarnate as a weeping willow
but not some seedling, rather more like the
old weeper I back my seated walker up to
for a rest on a long trek: this large, thick
boled tree that seeks no patterns in its
draping curves and scars, in its knots
and shifting shadows, nor even waits
for the sun to come out on this foggy
morning, but simply stands in this time
and this place; while I, who can't leave
well enough alone, sit underneath
the willow's minutely changing reach,
struggling to torture lines for a poem
from the stately silence of its presence


[non-dream free verse poem written 6-29-17. Photo "Love Knot" (5-16-17 016v2a) 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.

EYE ON THE MOUNTAIN (photomorph) & PORTALS (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

PORTALS

ah, by all the gods and goddesses, she craves
this man's embrace (and much more) ...
and so she takes the chance, backing through
the doorway to where he waits (for her?
she can't tell, can never tell what he wants
from her, if anything at all); before he has
barely registered her arrival or even moves
a muscle, she's shut the door and flattened
herself, face first against the inside of the
wood door: he must not see her eyes, must not
be scared off (of course, he'd never admit fear,
but simply find some excuse to avoid her),
for to look into her eyes he'd know again how
much she sees and understands through these
wide open twin burdens of vision she has,
giving her an owlish look (dilated pupils
like dark suns with the thinnest corona of pale
blue); then, as she's so dearly hoped, he moves in
to embrace her from behind, every inch of her
own body in humming contact with some part
of him; she feels safe enough now to swivel
around and face him within the snug hug
but she's extremely careful not to raise her
eyes to his: maybe later after they're steeped
thoroughly in carnal knowledge (as is so surely
about to begin) she will take the risk that he
won't be put off by the non-human mien her
orbs give her, and she'll raise her dark raptor
eyes to his, letting them become the portals
they were always meant to be


[free verse poem on a dream of 6-28-17. The image of over-dilated eyes with a thin (what I call in the poem) corona, came right from a fantasy novel that's my before sleep reading these days. The man who has the owlish look is a rather evil character, so I hope that's no comment on the woman in this dream as, of course, it was me (:-D). Also, one sign of sexual arousal is dilated pupils. This feeds into the eye image of the dream as well. Photomorph "Eye on the Mountain" (11-29-09 8391v4) 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 PROMISE (photo) & YOUR DEATH (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

YOUR DEATH

Your death tore through our lives
like a prairie tornado.
But unlike Dorothy and Toto I have been dumped
right back in the dust bowl of my life,
bearing memories that wave
in the corners of my stare
like worn work shirts on the backyard line.

Is this all the living ever really know of death:
these daily, hourly, minute-to-minute absences,
these sudden holes in the middle of everything
like the pupils in your drug-dilated eyes?

The last time you looked at me past the pain,
that last time I looked into your eyes
their light faded slowly
like great white birds
in a spiraling updraft.


[non-dream free verse poem written 1987, with revisions in 1993, 1995, & 2002; won a second place prize in a poetry contest several years ago. I've been thinking a lot recently about this time in my life. The woman was my roommate and best friend, and I took care of her in our apartment for about a year, until barely three months before her death of cancer. She was bed bound all that time as the cancer had spread to her spine. There's much more to this story, but I'll leave it at that. It was ultimately a life-transforming experience for me. Even though at the time I had no idea how I'd get through it. Hm, maybe that's why I'm thinking about it so much. I've been at a comparable emotional pass inside myself for some time now, with no idea how or if I'll get through it. I suppose my psyche could be reminding me it's possible to go on, no matter what. Photo "The Promise" (5-27-17 015v2) 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.

SWADDLED (photo) & I DON'T KNOW (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

I DON'T KNOW

I don't know about singing in the rain
but hobbling along with my walker
in this falling mist is wonderfully fine,
as are that grinning young skateboarder
rumbling down the black top toward me
out of the soft rolling fog and these
delightful puffs of warmth
the sun trumpets ahead of itself
through this swaddling dewy veil


[non-dream free verse poem written 4-13-17. Photo "Swaddled" (6-28-09 2982ev2a) 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.

YEAH, I REMEMBER THAT PARTY (photo) & THE GREAT DISTANCE (dream based prose poem) by Roswila

THE GREAT DISTANCE

I wander the poolside party alone
in the crowd; a young man wearing
barely more than his cowboy hat
scurries away from me as if
fearful this old lady might make
a pass at him; what a joke, I think,
he should only know how acutely
aware I am of my advancing
decrepitude; and more nearly naked
bodies, male and female, young and
not-quite-so-old, lounge together in
couples and in the occasional languid
exploring bunch, in the party's shadows
... damn, I could use a drink ... what better
time to break my 35 years of sobriety
than now, right in the middle of this
nightmare: actually at a party for a
change but more lonely than ever;
I reach for a drink being held out to me
with a warning that it's the last one
available, but the server turns suddenly
away from me to give it to someone else;
just then I receive a series of photos
by email from the man who's my current
hopeless crush; the photo that hits hardest:
he's sitting at one of the poolside
umbrella tables, his left arm around
one of the several women with him,
his right raising his beer to the star-
filled night sky, across which a text
message appears telling me what
to do from the great distance
he always keeps between us:
"Party, Patricia! PARTY! PARTY!"


[prose poem on a dream of 6-25-17. Photo "Yeah, I Remember that Party" (1-1-09 OLD PIX, 003v2b) 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.

MAULED (photomorph) & IMPACT (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

IMPACT

the impact of the purple blossoms
is almost a violence on this sun-bright
morning, triggering as it does land mine
recall of that photo taken on my sixteenth
Easter Sunday: I, in my new outfit,
totally accessorized in shades of purple,
radiating pride in my sartorial choices,
unaware that the shadows of our family house
and leaning trees surrounding me give the lie
to all the sunshine, exposing for those
who would see beyond the lavenders,
a darkness foisted upon me that I hide
from others and myself behind proud purple
banners, oblivious to the irony that deep
wounding bruises, too, are purple


[non-dream free verse poem written 6-24-17. Photomorph "Mauled" (8-5-09 4056v2c) 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.