HIDDEN HEARTS (photo) & ON SHRINKING (mixed format dream poem) by Roswila

ON SHRINKING

he's more relaxed with me than ever
I feel like one of his male best buddies

this crush that nearly
flattened my spirit is now just
a really good friend
I'm surprised to be quite content
with this new arrangement

we watch a wet male swimmer stand by the pool,
clearly extremely chilled by the evening breeze

my heart-throb-turned-buddy smiles and turns to me:
"How little it takes to thoroughly shrink a man!"


[a 2-liner, a tanka, and two more 2-liners on a dream of 7-6-18. Photo "Hidden Hearts" (10-20-16 009v2) 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.

PLAYING FOR THE WIND (photomorph) & ...AND YET MORE DIDJ'S ... (dream narrative) by Roswila

...AND YET MORE DIDJ'S ...*

didjeridus, again!
this time more than one
and they couldn't be more
different from each other,
but I'm determined to play
each of them in this talent
showcase; the other
performers before me have
done their amateur selves
proud and now it's my turn
to hopefully do the same;
as I'm being announced
I make some last minute,
hand-written notes about the
three didj's I'll be playing,
the third an exceedingly odd,
bowl-lampshade shape
and the most challenging
to play of any I've tried
over the years; a young
woman near me in the front
row pipes up impatiently
on my note-taking, mumbling
"Why don't you just play them
already?" (ah! echoes of New
York City in that phraseology);
I put down my notes and take
a couple of experimental runs
at getting a good didj growl
out of the one with the basin-
lampshade shape, but barely
get a whisper; I stand up,
wobbling less then usual with
the effort, the two column
shaped didj's in my left hand
and the bowl-shade shaped
one in my right; it won't kill
me, or even hurt all that much
to fail at yet another attempt
to play a thoroughly odd didj,
for as long as I am so deeply
drawn to these ancient drones,
it's more important that I
simply keep trying


[narrative on a dream of 7-5-18. *didj = my shortening of the spelling of the drone instrument of Australian aboriginal origin, that I both have and play = didjeridu (the more common spelling is didjeridoo). The title and the opening two lines reference not only a very recent didj dream I had, but the many I've had over the years. Link to most recent didj dream with some explanatory notes about my history with didj playing. Photomorph "Playing For the Wind" (9-15-16 003v3a) 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.

LAID BARE (photomorph) & EXPOSURE (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

EXPOSURE

long accustomed
to wandering in the gloom
she convinced herself it was glorious
to bear the focused beam of his attention,
but like that painful sunburn she got
despite knowing she should not
expose her very pale skin,
for days afterwards she itches,
layer after layer of confused feelings
peeling away in hot discomfort
leaving a mottled
and slowly fading tenderness


[non-dream free verse poem written 7-6-14, and revised several times since, the most recently today (7-3-18). Another of those problematic and/or old poems I've been posting here recently. This one still doesn't feel "right," but I can't bring myself to give up and delete it, and no amount of revising seems to "fix" it. So, here it is. Now maybe I can let it go. LOL ... What will probably happen (as has happened with others of its ilk) is I'll stumble across it months or years from now, and fuss at it some more. Photomorph "Laid Bare" (7-3-13 006v5a) 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.

INCIPIENCE (photomorph) & ON INGS (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

ON INGS

life is in the gerunds:

what's a swing without -ing,
just another static butt rest

what's a walk without an -ing,
but another lost adventure

and what's love without it's -ing,
but a gift ungiven, a bet
on the best in life unmade


[non-dream free verse poem written 6-25-18. My dream recall's abysmal these days. And what vague fragments come with me into waking are non-compelling images that had kept repeating. I've actually been having a lot of repeating dream images within dreams recently. Maybe it's a way my less conscious mind is trying to get my attention enough to remember and write about the dream on waking. But none of this has anything to do with the above little poem. I'd probably not even post it (it's no great shakes, it was more intriguing as an idea) except I have nothing new to share and don't feel like searching for something to re-post. BTW, I recall being told (waaaay back when I was a total tyro as a poet) that my work had an awful lot of gerunds in it. That left me with an acute awareness of when I use them (or don't). And recently (decades after that anti-gerund comment) I've decided that they're lovely things that ring and sing, not just sitting there but doing something. Photomorph "Incipience" (1-29-14 005v7a) 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.

BUTTRESS (photomorph) & FEAR OF FALLING (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

FEAR OF FALLING

With that way you had
of making orders out of requests
you were embarrassed to make,
you told me to stand behind you
on your first attempt
to use a walker
so I could catch you if you fell

You, my best friend and roommate,
a beautiful, strong young woman
unstopped by your ancient
fear of falling
or the newer advent
of cancer spread from your breast
to your spine

And that was where I stood,
behind your halting life
as you took each successive step
toward dying, my hands outstretched
to catch you, to cushion the fall

At night you would call out for me,
terrified you would fall endlessly
into the well of pain: of body,
of spirit, that tortured your dreams
and shadowed your waking
to the end

And I would be there behind you,
backing whatever stand you took:
combative, tender,
or crackling with dark
and wildly liberating humor

At the end you called to my heart
from the coma
you never came out of,
to stand behind you
one more time, as you prepared
to take that last step into death

It is I now who fear the nightly
fall through the bottom
of my own life, afraid to meet
what waits for me, alone
but for a ghostly flutter
of hands against my back


[non-dream, free verse poem written in February of 1994, and slightly revised over the years, as recently as today (7-1-18). This is about my dear friend Brenda, who shows up here in many a poem. So that it was a surprise to find after a lengthy search, that I've not posted this one before. Photomorph "Buttress" (2-08a-14 10026ev2c) 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.