Haiku and other musings

 

I remember going to a presentation by a Haiku master, who said the following rules apply

• 5-7-5 syllable pattern
• The first and second lines form one thought, the second and third another 
• Most are about Nature

I am going to play with the format a bit

As man attacks her

Nature hurls back her defense

The Earth is awake

Walking on the path

We do not see the flower

Blooming for no one

I miss the craft of poetry.  It can be work or it can just fall out onto the page, it is never clear which way the poem wants to go.  

Often I approach them with the same idea a painter I knew in college took- something to the effect of  just doing it and not editing it ( I think she said she was taught that her work needed to be completed in 7 minutes, but it was a LONG time ago and I may be mis-remembering it) sometimes, a poem will sit in draft for a long time and I will either edit it or delete it if I cannot remember just what I wanted to say.

I was talking to Chris today about really focusing on my art.  Art is the thing that restores us and in these dark days in this country, we need to remember to make space for it.  I fear the Fascists will only endorse what THEY like ( hideous things, monuments to themselves, covered in gold)  It is only a matter of time until the Kennedy Center is rebranded the Trump Center, isn't it?

Keep making art, whatever you do. Let us not sink into despair, as long as we can fight back.

Get your girls checked

 

Update.   There is a problem.  I have to go in for more tests.  I keep telling myself it's nothing.

I have an appointment this morning for a mammogram  I am not looking forward to it, but I am not dreading it ( the same cannot be said for some of the other "fun" exams that women need to have done)

I have been having them every year since I was 48  I should have started when I was 40.  My mother developed breast cancer in her 70's and they caught it early enough so she just needed a lumpectomy and radiation.

The reason I went is that I ran into a friend on the subway, who causally told me that she was better and that they had gotten all the cancer. alarm bells went off in my head and I scheduled a mammo.  They found "something" and that something was getting ready to turn.  I saw her on the subway a few weeks after my surgery and told her she saved my life.  I stopped riding the subway a while after that and never ran into her again.  So, wherever you are Shari, thank you,

I have had the "the doctor needs to see you" appointment three times.   I have had three biopsies ( those FREAKING HURT) and two lumpectomies. Both were on the verge of becoming cancerous and I had a mammo every six months for two years after each surgery.

I am on top of it.  

If you are reading this- and you ARE- please get your "girls" checked ( I call mine "the twins") If you have a friend who hasn't gone , encourage them to do it. It is uncomfortable, sure I am a particularly "voluptuous" girl and  getting my tatas flattened is not my idea of a good time. I am fairly short and sometimes standing in one position is hard for me, but it's worth it.

I generally get my mammo in April.  I am reminded by T.S. Eliot that "April is the Cruelest month"  so I go. Today was the earliest convenient  appointment. I'll let you all know how it goes.