CLIMBING TOWARD THE LIGHT (photo) & THE WALK (dream writing) by Roswila

THE WALK

he walks away from our quiet
corner conversation, to stand
and have a smoke; I know
that's why he wandered off --
to respect my own non-smoking
stance -- however, he does
always find a reason to put
distance between us, doesn't he?

I then turn away from the sight
of him pondering something over
a cigarette, to continue on my
way toward the distant mountains

the walk is rough, I nearly turn
an ankle in the deep ruts of tire
and wheel tracks several times
but do not feel discouraged or
worried, realizing, to my utter
surprise, that I'm not using
my walker nor even
my walking stick!

I laugh softly as a large, squat
mountain goat bounds down, off
the rough roadside, to where I stand
in the narrow but relatively
smoother path

the clearly old but spry goat stops right
next to me and I recall how difficult
I've heard it is to shake these creatures
when they become attached -- and this one
is attaching all over me right now,
plastered right up against me on its hind
legs like a large white dog, both offering
and seeking lots of attention

I gently push it away, but it continues
to cling making me feel a wee bit
guilty, it is after all obviously gentle
natured and it is nice to be so wanted
but I have places to go and things
I really need to do and it's getting late

I give it a couple more gently discouraging
shoves and it's gone, back up the roadside
hill and into the woods lining the path

it's now so late in the day I really must
turn back toward town and I do, wondering
if that man will have finished his smoke
and returned to the corner where we'd
been chatting, and I see that he has,
just as he lifts his old, white haired
head and smiles glowingly at me


[written on a dream of 10-1-18 (during my recent blog break). That goat image -- the actual goat, the one vaguely implied in the man, and my identification with it -- is really the "heart" of this dream. Several strong associations to it: to be a "goat" is to be a "patsy" (a nickname for my first name, Patricia, that I've always refused to accept), to be an "old goat" is to be horny, and my goat is very easily gotten these days. There's also the issue of how have I been, or am I about to be, rejecting. BTW (added days after writing these comments), I started reading "Grendel" again a few days after this dream. It had been my before sleep reading, except that I'd been falling asleep before even reaching for it for some time now. I'd left off after a scene near the end that I had to re-read, in which a goat keeps climbing towards Grendel even though Grendel has hit it with a tree and boulders and stones. The bloodied goat is virtually an example of "the walking dead." Grendel thinks it's extremely foolish but also keeps adding "that's what goats do" (i.e., climb). In terms of this dream, who's more the goat here? Me or that goat. And maybe there's more strength in my goat self (I am a sun sign Capricorn, after all) than I tend to recognize. This is one of those dreams filled with endless possible ways of reading it. I just thought how there's a goat and a monster (Grendel) in us all. Re-reading these comments I see how far afield they may appear to go from the dream. I'd prefer to say that they dig down into the real dream, or -- to stick with the goat image -- make the difficult climb to some of the scary truth(s) hidden in it. Photo "Climbing Toward the Light" (10-24-15 011v3) 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.

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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 blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post); TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.