MIXED SIGNALS (photomorph) & THE IRONY OF IT ALL (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

THE IRONY OF IT ALL

will you ever invite (nay, as you did then,
gently command) me to touch you in that way
again? no, no, not that way, I've come to believe
it's highly unlikely you'll ever encourage, much less
request what I so desire ... but, as I said, will you ever
again ask for my touch in that oddly intimate way,
as you did that time, encouraging my palming
of your shoulder and all that warmth radiating
from beneath your brand new shirt; sadly, I've never
been good at reading the non-verbal signals a man
puts out and so did not interpret the electricity
I felt there as a direct current of inquiry; not to
mention I was far too buzzed by my own barely
buffered desire, not wanting it to spill over
and disrupt that sweet and all too rare
connection with you


[non-dream free verse poem of 1-11-18. Photomorph "Mixed Signals" (10-3-11 11324v10e) by Roswila, best viewed in larger version to see the details, so just click on the image if interested]

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 GATHERING (photomorph) & AT THE FAR END OF LIFE (non-dream tanka) by Roswila

AT THE FAR END OF LIFE

I'd hate to believe
this is all there's going to be,
but maybe it's enough:
enfolding the heat of brilliant
sunlight in my empty lap


[non-dream tanka written 1-12-18. Photomorph "The Gathering" (10-8-11 11370v2e) 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.

UNPLAITED (photo) & THE ONLY CLOSENESS (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

THE ONLY CLOSENESS

in the music video, Willie*combs his long
hair preparing to braid it, just as I finger
comb my own lengthy spider webs, testing
to see if they're dry enough to be plaited;
his rendition of "You Don't Know Me"
goes on, as do my tears and finger combing
while I try to sing along with him despite
my sobbing: is this the only closeness
I'll ever have with a man I adore
before I am loosed from this life onto
the high winds like an ancient, fragile
web, torn loose and unraveled


[non-dream free verse poem written 1-10-18. *Willie Nelson's rendition of "You Don't Know Me", on YouTube. And as I've said on this blog in the past, I have a tremendous crush on him. Photo "Unplaited" (7-18-16 007v2a) 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.

SKY STRUTS (photomorph) & HOW DOES (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

HOW DOES

how does one survive an environmental
threat, one that slowly eats away at one's
natural habitat and everything one depends
on, leaving only raw hunger and a faculty for
creative planning and playfulness that's fast
becoming more a sorrow than a joy; this faculty
that's always protected everything beneath it,
even as it now rattles in the winter wind facing
off the cold blue sky like a large white, paper
umbrella with fragile wooden struts; and, as ever,
displaying words, this time written in dark blue
calligraphy spanning its long translucent curves:
Thank You


[non-dream free verse poem written 1-10-18. This one was a challenge to format on the page. My initial shaping was very much like the side view of an umbrella (just for the fun of it!). But the longest line just before the "handle" words of "Thank You" did not fit this blog's column width and got broken. Argh! Although this shaping is fine, having seen the umbrella like one, it leaves me cold. I've often thought how anyone viewing this blog with their screen font size set larger, is frequently not seeing my intended formatting anyway. Sigh. An object lesson in how environment impacts us. (Yeah, I could adjust the column width in this blog's template. But that's more work than I'm willing to go to. Especially to fix a problem that [probably] rarely crops up.) BTW, this poem is the off-shoot of watching a World Wildlife Fund video on polar bears and their vanishing environment. My stepmother used to say I was like a polar bear -- cuddly but a little chilly. And one of the narrators in the video called the polar bear an umbrella species, and I was off and writing. However, though it may not be clear in the poem, it is meant by extension to address more than my own little life. Photomorph "Sky Struts" (9-05-09 6468e5) 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.

WASHED AWAY (photomorph) & AFTER THE FIRE, THE FLOOD (mixed format, non-dream poem) by Roswila

AFTER THE FIRE, THE FLOOD

morning news:
houses washed away by
the torrential rainstorm,
broken pieces like skeletons
littering the muddy earth

rescued people and pets helped down
from the backs of huge military vehicles

stories of neighbors rescuing neighbors,
with their own homes also buried, or gone

"All I heard was a huge 'whoosh' and there was
four feet of mud surrounding our home..."

a dazed man lifting his trained rescue dog:
"... and the fireman carried him, just this way!"

yes, "just this way" the best in us surfacing
through the fire, and from the mud


[a tanka and five two-liners written 1-9-18, while watching T.V. news on the torrential rainstorm that's caused mudslides below the recently burned wildfire areas in Santa Barbara County (near where I live) and Ventura, CA. Photomorph "Washed Away" (10-5-09 7296ev5a) 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.

RESURRECTION (photomorph) & HUMAN REMAINS (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

HUMAN REMAINS

Could this dream have any more images in it
that turn me off, that make me want to totally
reject it and not even attempt to write about it?
I don't think so

For starters: three dead people buried in garbage
cans in shallow graves beneath a lawn

Add to all this, the dead are those who've
been highly problematic in my life, with each
of the three doing double duty: I know who
they are, er, rather were; however, their names
are not theirs but those of others who also give
me fits, making a grand total of six folk
who are dead to me

Then there's the fact that the woman whose
hoe hit the garbage cans as she was cleaning
up the messy lawn bears the name of a Saint!

Yeah, only a Saint would want to or even
could take on this smelly resurrection (oh,
yes, I forgot to mention the aroma coming
from the cans-cum-coffins once they got
jostled was eye watering and nauseating)

I'm reminded of what William Faulkner
said: "The past is not dead, it's not even
past" ... this is what denial does, buries
but does not rid us of what we refuse
to deal with anymore

Yet just what am I and this benighted
Saint as she dithers unhappily over what
her hoeing has resurrected, supposed to do
with all this evidence of death and denial?

Do human remains make good compost?


[free verse poem on a dream of 1-6-17. I can count the number of nightmares I've had in my life on the fingers of one hand. Although I don't consider this one of them, it comes darn close. BTW, my personal definition of a nightmare is a dream that's so impossible to tolerate that I wake myself up to get away from it. And in those few I've had, I was raped, or stabbed or attacked in some way. None of that happened here. I also have begun to suspect that the burials may not be all that negative. Nor the Saint all that positive. Once that possibility of compost entered my waking mind in the writing process, I began to see a suggestion that there's a way I cause myself much misery by digging up the dead, so to speak. All the while, thinking I'm doing something necessary. Something that was necessary at one time but may be no more. As in actuality many things do -- despite Faulkner's assertion -- have their ends; are truly over. I'm now reminded of a bible quote I saw on a Zen calendar: Let the dead bury their dead. My interpretation in light of this dream? Live, here and now, and leave the dead and gone be. Photomorph "Resurrection" (10-5-09 7336v4g) 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.

RAIN BOWS (photomorph) & "the willow's aim ..." (non-dream haiku) by Roswila

the willow's aim is off
the rain shots hit where I
had just been sitting


[haiku written 2-8-17. Had a rather disturbing dream last night about some dead people having been buried in garbage cans in shallow graves beneath a lawn. Knowing me, I will probably try to work it up into a dream poem, but am very resistant to the idea. So I went through my haiku master file for any still un-posted poems to put up today. And this one even fits what we're expecting: a rainstorm. Yay! We're still in a drought here in this area of CA, and can really use it. Of course, there are worries about mudslides in the recent wildfire areas in Ventura and Carpinteria. Photomorph "Rain Bows" (9-5-13 0009v3o) 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.