THE FOOL (original Marker Tarot card design) & THE VERTICAL HORIZON (dream narrative) by Roswila

A VERTICAL HORIZON

how many times have I assembled this full-size
ersatz motorcycle? and I'm assembling it again?
is this an on-going Zen lesson, seeping up from
memories of the old book "Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance"*? it does appear more
like a book than an actual hog, a lot of its many
pieces and joints and pipes are rather page-like,
and this particular piece in my hands resembles
a black hard cover, folding down the middle
as if awaiting a book's paginated story ...

stranger yet, why am I doing all this repetitive
assembling on a cliff side, a vertical cliff edge
no less -- can you visualize that? one might jump
or ride off it even though it's not horizontal --
a cliff whose underlying reality is actually a road,
even though for the life of me I can't see how it can
be ridden down, even by this humongous, odd
origami-like motorcycle, provided, of course,
I can ever get it to stay fully assembled
long enough to mount and start it up ...

and worse yet, who's this stranger behind me,
this dark, stocky non-threatening man in a black
baseball cap to whom I hand something complicated
from the motorcycle parts that are right now only
partially assembled, as if I'm both proud of the work
I'm attempting, and want him to feel welcome to join
me in the ride I've not yet given up hope of taking
along this impossible and compelling
vertical horizon


[narrative on a dream of 8-24-17. I actually re-read * "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" maybe a year or so ago. It had shown up in a dream back then, too. My first read was back in the 1970's. BTW, I have some sexual associations to the imagery in this dream. And overall, it puts me in mind of The Fool card in The Tarot (Rider/Waite/Smith deck version):

Black and white image at top of post: The Fool card in Roswila's The Marker Tarot, a deck in the process of being designed.]

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.

DAY'S END (photo) & I'LL HAVE TO TRUST (non-dream poem/prayer) by Roswila

I'LL HAVE TO TRUST

how loud and how long must I
cry out to you, Great Mystery or God
or whatever you might be,
and still receive no answer

or could it be you've been answering
this endlessly stubborn, thick-headed old
woman all along the only way she's ever
really listened: breaking me open with pain
and fracturing my illusions until
they wound like shrapnel

if so, Lord, bring it on 'til there's nothing
left in me to break down or bleed open,
I can take it

and if I can't, I'll have to trust your response
to my utter failure to bear up beneath
your answers to my prayers will then be
to embrace me gently,
and carry me home


[non-dream free verse poem/prayer written 8-12-17. I'm uncertain about this one (as I was yesterday's). But have nothing else ready I feel at all like posting. Of course, I could just skip a day but it's such a habit to put something up daily I feel itchy/odd when I don't. Photo "Day's End" (8-21-17 001v2) 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.

IT GIVES ONE PAUSE (photo) & TWO MEN & A KNOW-IT-ALL (dream based prose poem) by Roswila

TWO MEN AND A KNOW-IT-ALL

two men ... brothers? or simply colleagues
or close, long time friends? ... well, anyway,
the first of them and I may have something
important to do with each other soon,
if I can develop any trust in him,
and in his beliefs and practices

the neighborhood know-it-all sees my hesitant
look and whispers into my ear that he's heard
he's not only what he says he is, but well trained
and licensed, something like a volunteer
chiropractor (this rumormonger male says)

I still have my questions, of course (I reply),
and this neighbor interrupts to go on about
the other man, the less obvious one who's
practically the first man's twin, noting rather
dismissively -- as if the facts are so clear
as to be obvious -- that he's not as skilled as
the first man, and rumored to be unlicensed

this gossipy man then adds in a stage
whisper that this second man, this almost twin,
is also no where near as handsome as the first!

well, that just takes the cake, doesn't it,
(I think), maybe all this opinionating should
require a license also: it's practically illegal,
probably verging on slander, and definitely
off putting ...

so why am I standing still for it? listening
when I could be checking out that first
man, forming my own opinion of his
knowledge and skill, and most of all,
his marked desire to be of use to others
around him in whatever way he can


[prose poem on a dream of 8-10-17. I've had this one on the back burner for a couple of weeks now. Just not all that jazzed by it. Mostly, I think, because I don't really "get it." In a Jungian sense it could be read as a transition phase of the animus. Hopefully, a further maturing of same. But that's a shaky interpretation. It's seems more to be very outwardly oriented and might be about real life relationships. Though which ones I'm at a bit of a loss to accurately determine. LOL -- I just had the flash thought that it's about my struggle with my on-going ambivalence about the male of the species! And that's only partly a joke. Photo "It Gives One Pause" (8-13-17 017v8) 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.

NUEVA SONRISA (photomorph) & "old arthritic joints..." (non-dream senryu) by Roswila

old arthritic joints
old emotional pain
but, hey, a new day!


[senryu (very similar form to haiku) written 8-2-17. Photomorph "Nueva Sonrisa" 8-15-17 003v3c) 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.

WINDS OF TIME (photo) & THIS WANNABE (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

THIS WANNABE

even if the dazzle comes only
from a small piece of shattered
glass, it still pleases my eye
as much as any diamond
or messenger star

and even if I can't reach beyond
the fence to retrieve this sharp
edged wannabe gem for burial
in the trash, one day it, too,
will be reduced and re-shaped
by time and exposure to be
taken up by the soft sands
of the constantly
shifting universe


[non-dream free verse poem written 8-22-17. Photo "Winds of Time" (8-21-17 009v2h) 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.

IT'S OK TO COME OUT NOW (photo) & THE PROTECTOR (dream based free verse poem) by Roswila

THE PROTECTOR

the small, nearly albino tiger
remembers the cold years
before her internal thermostat
adjusted to her lack of color,
as if the warm flush of blood
had been drained from her
in some sudden catastrophe

those years when everyone
kept insisting she really needed
some typical bright tiger orange
on at least her paws and on the tips
of her large ears, to warm up her
white fur and its little zig-zag
stripes of black

all those years when she was still
pudgy and kittenish, but always
far too cold, well, it's a small miracle
she was able to concentrate enough
to learn her job as The Protector, given
not only the on-going disruptive chills,
but the small size and quirky grasp
she never fully out grew

fortunately, though, as she matured
her internal thermostat had adjusted
and the miserable chills
had disappeared

except on nights like this
when she patrols the perimeter
and she's hauled into hyper-alert
by a noise that sends ice shards
burning through her, triggering
recall of what she'd once been:
a kitten fractured by chills


[free verse poem on a dream of 8-17-17. Sigh. The Protector would really be welcome, in fact, is very needed right now. But all that's around is that shivering kitten. Talk about a backslide! Maybe that's what this dream was really about: a warning that I was going into a fractured phase. At least I hope it's only a phase and not my "new normal." Photo "It's OK to Come Out Now" (8-7-17 012v2) 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.

HOT FOOTIN' IT (photomorph) & OLD FRIENDS (in memory of Brenda Joyce Cohen; non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

OLD FRIENDS
(in memory of Brenda Joyce Cohen*)

Patricia! she proclaims, pointing
to my feet, you told me you finally
threw out those awful old shoes!

Grinning and blushing I look
down at my poorly shod tootsies
yes, I did throw them out, I respond,
but I missed them before I even
got back from the trash can

they're like old friends,
so comfortable
and they don't give me
any back talk at all anymore,
and they don't gobble socks
and they never put up a stink,
how can I ever let go of them?


[non-dream free verse poem written 8-19-17 (posted 8-20-17). *A dear friend and roommate whom, as I've said here before, I took care of 40 years ago in our apartment until barely 3 months before she died of cancer. I've been thinking about that time a lot recently, and the total 60+ years I lived in New York City (before moving here to California not quite 10 years ago).]

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.