PAINTING THE NIGHT (photomorph) & THE BLISTERING RUB (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

THE BLISTERING RUB

only on recalling the dream do I also
recall I’ve had very similar ones before:
only there’s an honesty in it (or is it more
a fear leaking out of the basement reaches
of the dream like radon) that I don’t think
has shown up in others; yes, in each
previous dream my painting is outstanding,
one might call it top notch photorealism
framed by an artistic eye, but (and here’s
the blistering rub) in this version of the
recurring dream theme, all my art is copied
from others’ highly touted work, making
the pile of my paintings that I flip through,
unframed and some still drying, more like
photocopies: were it not for the fact one can
actually feel my brushstrokes and smell
the paint as it dries (here, sniff, this one is of
a gloriously tangled wood, somehow bearing a
green aroma); sigh, this only means my work
is like that of a counterfeiter … hm, maybe
I’ve always known this, and wonder sadly in
the dream if this is why I don’t like to charge
much if anything at all for my art: lay no
claim to be it being other than what it is
by conspicuous pricing, and how can I be
faulted if someone mistakes it
for a masterpiece?


[free verse poem on a dream of 1-17-20. Photomorph “Painting the Night” (7-23-09 4124v4g[3]) 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 or contrasting 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 SIX OF SWORDS (Taiga Tarot card design) & THE LAY OF THE LAND (dream haiku pair) by Roswila

THE LAY OF THE LAND

re-mapping flight
I sit outside between the wings
they bend

we’re so far from home
I insist we turn around
mirror bright lakes


[dream haiku pair dreamed/written March 2008, with some tweaking done for re-posting today. Yes, another re-posting, selected from that old handwritten dream haiku notebook of mine. I think this is one of the first examples of a pair (or more) of dream haiku on one dream. I started doing this about the time I moved here to CA in February of 2008. I was wanting to include more about a dream (dream haiku almost always require focusing on just one aspect of a dream). I was also wanting more “room” (i.e., words, lines) in which to address whatever aspect I chose to of a dream. Though I have to admit, I think singleton dream haiku have proven over time to be more successful as writing and as a dream record, than the many dream haiku series I wrote for a while. As to the pic accompanying this post, this dream haiku pair also generated a design for the Six of Swords in my Tarot deck-in-progress, The Taiga Tarot. (BTW, I’m still hoping to produce more cards for this deck. I even have a couple drafted and sketched out, in my old manila older. But life keeps making other plans.😊) Photo “Six of Swords” (Current Pix, taiga tarot pgk, 6S4 [jpg]) 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 or contrasting 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.

REFLECTION (photomorph) & "overcast river..." (dream haiku) by Roswila

overcast river
she returns to stand by
the rock splitting tree


[dream haiku, dreamed/written January 2008. Did some tweaking of this one. I’ve always had a particular fondness for its mood, but found the writing not quite right. I think I may have finally gotten it into good shape. But who knows? As the cliché goes, only time will tell. That is, only in time will I (maybe) rest easy with its expression. BTW, it’s working up to raining here soon, so it’s an appropriate choice for today’s post in whatever shape it may be in. Also, in case it isn’t obvious, this ‘ku is from one of those old books of my handwritten dream haiku that I’ve been (re-)posting from for a while now. Photomorph “Reflection” (Camera Roll …Pro[6]) 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 or contrasting 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.

IN THE WAKE OF THE FLOOD (photomorph) & MORE THE FOOL (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

MORE THE FOOL

flood after flash flood channeled from afar
to here, and I, more the fool, keep standing
right in their predictable path, sand-bagging
beforehand, and cleaning up and re-organizing
after each tumult rushes on; what a doofus,
why not just move, stand my ground some
other place? I mean, I can’t even lay claim
to a mythology to shore up my thoroughly
bedraggled sense of self, such as: their waters
leave the land ever more fertile, like the Nile
in ancient times; hell, the only thing with
increasing fertility around here as the waters
begin to rumble warningly in the distance
again, is my anxiety: I’m not prepared yet
for another inundation – they’re coming closer
together these days – so I’d best stop all this
ruminating and start piling on the sand bags,
or I’ll be tumbled and agitated right down
to the sea, all while getting beaten
on the rocks like so much dirty laundry


[free verse poem on a dream of 1-13-20. Photomorph “In the Wake of the Flood” (Archives 5-25-09 1718ev3[2]) 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 or contrasting 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.

LASSOING THE MOON (photomorph) & TAKING DICTATION (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

TAKING DICTATION

why’m I taking down the lyrics (by hand, with a
pen!) for all these songs as they play? I had too many
years of taking dictation back in the day, when I had
no choice -- it was, after all, one of the few skills that
I could get paid for using -- but now? who’m I even
taking down the words of these admittedly delightful
songs for, anyway? I’m sure as hell not getting paid
to do it, and I can’t see myself doing it “just for the
fun of it;” hey, trailing the mash up of short hand
symbols and English abbreviations I’d developed
behind the spoken words of some impatient or
simply oblivious boss, was never my favorite way
to earn a living (give me straight-ahead typing
from a page: I was quite a typist in the day, still am,
relatively speaking) but here I am on the fourth in
a series of songs: the first three’d been classically
inclined, all neatly and accurately entered in my
small spiral bound dictation notebook, while this
fourth (and, somehow, I know to be the last I’ll
be setting down the words for on a page) is a
country western song, performed by the young,
dark-haired woman who wrote it: why’s it giving
me such trouble? I can barely keep up, losing
the tail end of almost every line of the lyrics, yet
it all seems to hold together in an odd way, as I
lasso as many of the words I’m able to when they
rear up from the rhythm and pitch; and I sense
it’s OK to remain silent, not to ask her to slow
down so that I may keep up: I’m relieved to
go on writing, capturing what words I can in
whatever amount and in whatever combination
of shorthand and abbreviations (looped or
slip knotted, tangled or languidly loose)
slip from my pen in my desire to do this last
song’s poetry at least a wee bit of justice


[free verse poem on a dream of 1-13-20. Photomorph “Lassoing the Moon” (6-28-09 2988v4c[2]) 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 or contrasting 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.

AGITATED REFLECTION (photomorph) & "MIRROR, MIRROR..." (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

“MIRROR, MIRROR …

on the wall” … well, not on it quite yet, I’m still
trying to figure out the safest way to hang it, if I
don’t want it to fall off into a pile of angry,
magical shards; it’s always a risk to rely on
magic, shining in the electric air, to turn out
the way it was intended; and, hey, why do I
keep visualizing how to fix this smallish mirror
in its inelegant but serviceable frame to this
particular wall which is already nothing but solid
mirror? yeah, as if when this box I call a room
was first built, this one wall was constructed of
a thick, old, fun house mirror that melts and
twists the images it offers: ah, here’s a sort of
“pre-quest” -- little mirror, yet to be safely fixed
to this mirror of a wall, forget any comparisons
to who’s fairest in this cramped queendom …
this is, after all, not a fairy tale, but my life …
and once I ask you the question I’ve not yet teased
out of a passel of possibles and unknowns, please
reflect what presents directly to you as your
response; I can compensate for the inevitable
reversal of images -- left for right is not such a big
deal to cope with -- if you’ll give me an honest,
simple answer to the question I’ve not yet been
able to select, needing the clarity of reflection to
guide me; sigh, a conundrum: if I don’t ever take
the chance and hang you, risk your ultimate fall
into nothing but cutting shards, reflecting what-
ever the huge mirror-wall goes on warping, I’ll
never discover what it is I so desperately want
to ask you, much less, actually ask it


[free verse poem on a dream of 1-12-20. Two heavy influences on this dream: that book of re-worked fairy tales I’m reading (applicable here, Snow White), and the new movie “John Wick 3: Parabellum.” I hasten to note that I would not have chosen to watch that movie last night, knowing what a violent series it is. But my company (and good friend) likes the series and so I decided to go with it. Well, I won’t put up a review here (these three letters will suffice: ACK!), but there were intense scenes of people being tossed into glass mirror-like boxes, shattering them (the boxes, and the people!). At one point I said to him (my company) that it was like an old carnival hall of mirrors gone totally berserk. Photomorph “Agitated Reflection” (Screenshots 6, 10-21-19[87]) 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 or contrasting 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.