Another Open Mic
Here’s yours truly reading Absence and They’re Just Family, After All at an Open Mic (only my third). To see the full poems, please click on the links.
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A 5-year-old Muses
“Grandma, do you drive?” “No, Love, not right now.?” “But you can drive, right? Do you have a license…actually, what is a license?” “It’s a little piece of paper that says you’ve passed your driving test.” We’re snuggled into bed for the night, the second of a two-night sleepover. She is five, and I am […]
Read MoreWhy Write Poetry
First, a disclaimer: I am in no way an authority on poetry; it is just something I happen to do… a lot. In fact, my original blog, One Woman’s Quest, is dedicated to my poetic escapades. A cancer scare prompted me to start writing a blog in the first place – I needed somewhere to […]
Read MoreSystemic Describes ME/CFS
Systemic best describes the characteristic of ME/CFS: the exhaustion, like a lead weight, hits muscles, organs, and brain creating an overall resistance to movement. Physical energy is engaged in a battle against spirit. Two weeks ago, I attended wedding preparations and celebrations, babysat my five-year-old granddaughter, and felt like I was finally progressing beyond this […]
Read MoreGlue: A Dream Perspective
(Sometimes, the best way to approach dream interpretation is to retell the dream from a different character’s perspective. What follows is just that. The ‘she’ referred to is the ego self. To gain further insight, I also wrote a poem, simply titled “Glue”.) How can I justify this current state of malaise, given the opulence […]
Read MoreME/CFS and To-do Lists
To-do list: write publish a blog post shower and dress strip the bed and remake vacuum and dust bedroom put away groceries from yesterday prep veggies for cooking make vegetable curry make red lentil kale soup make spicy tomato chick pea soup put away clothes from laundry Reality: slept late wrote and published blog post […]
Read MoreIllness is Loss: Encouragement Needed
Frankenstein legs, I call them, these long, slender appendages once a treasured asset, now stiff and unpredictable. Hunchbacked is my stance thanks to weakened back muscles. Cruella de Vil has nothing on me, my formerly auburn waves salt and pepper with a shock of white at the front. And when I speak there is hesitation […]
Read MoreNeeds and Relationship
Needs, it seems, are an important ingredient in any healthy relationship. I’ve been listening to Esther Perel’s podcast: Where Should We Begin? and in almost every couple’s counselling session she records, needs come up. “I’ve never been any good at identifying my needs,” I tell my therapist in a recent session. “In fact, from an […]
Read MoreStumbling Start
“How do you feel about everything that is happening?” my therapist asked me, last visit. “Good,” I responded, without hesitation. “I feel as if I’m breaking down barriers: embracing life and possibility, despite my illness.” Yesterday, I promised to rest, but there were boxes in the way, and nowhere to sit, so I unpacked one, […]
Read MoreAnother Chapter Closes
The house creaks and cracks with such ferociousness, I am unable to sleep. Perhaps it does not like the starkness of bare walls, the absence of furniture, the finality of boxes stacked and sealed. It is my last night here – just myself, a king sized bed and a complaining house. So much has changed […]
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One Woman's Quest II 