I’m not especially pleased with this piece’s conclusion but I do kind of like my opening. Not my best, probably not my worst, and not half-bad for getting back on the horse after so long!
8/31/20 Night’s Mourning
June 7 2020: Systemic Heart Failure
I have my doubts about how this one turned out but the subject matter has been weighing on me since yesterday when an emergency patient came into the animal clinic I work at. She was expanding like the blueberry girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
We tapped her like a keg and drained about 4 liters of fluids out over an hour and a half, during which time the vet reviewed her records and explained heart failure to me. I haven’t been able to get out of my head how delicate the whole system of our bodies is. One piece stops working right and everything compounds to come back around and make that one problem worse.
Food for thought: is the system that makes our society so different?
June 4 2020: Pit Stop!
Missed my chance to post this morning. A bit of brevity in light of heavier news and work. Three guesses how I spent my morning.
June 3 2020: Untitled
Shared an idea with my bride this morning and her feedback might have broken my brain. I love this woman. Can’t think of a good title. See aforementioned comment about broken brain.
June 1 2020: We Are Ill
I am not a political person. I barely pay attention to the news. When my mind and imagination aren’t allowed to wander they are directed at the things immediately around me. I am, by and large, oblivious to the world around me. I am privileged to be able to be that way.
This poem is not one of my best examples of wordsmithing and the subject matter is not intended to be inflammatory. I want it to make us think. I want it to make us feel. I want it to compel us to open our eyes. Because we are not well right now as a nation, as one people under God, and we really need to examine why and think about how we can all be better.
May 31 2020: Inspiration
I’m starting today with so many things I want to do and even more ideas. It’s both wonderful and frustrating. Certainly invigorating, though also easy to become paralyzed by decision overload. Here’s an attempt to share a little bit of what it’s like inside my head right now…
May 29 2020: Waiting
There I always something profoundly sad bout dogs in clinics and shelters. Perhaps because on some level we can all relate.
As an aside, the dog in the photo is from the clinic I work at and he is not snarling—he had an accident a while back and that old injury isn’t why he was visiting. He was simply so striking that I couldn’t resist taking a picture and that one in particular ended up matching so well with today’s poem that I had to use it.
May 28 2020: Life of Edges
Last night my bride fell down a flight of stairs. She’s ok, but it was scary for both of us.
This morning my grandfather undergoes heart surgery after surviving a heart attack several days ago.
Life seems to be made up of edges right now.
May 27 2020: A Flotilla of Ducklings
My bride and I have been watching a clutch of ducklings grow up on the pond behind us. They’ve gotten so big! Seeing them just makes me a little bit happy and I thought that needed to be shared this morning.
May 26 2020: Shaping an Idea
Baby steps to get back in the habit of daily poetry and blogging.
This is hardly a new concept for creatives—the naturally occurring limitations that necessitate creation and how by defining a thing we take away so much of it. What makes this poem interesting to me, however, was that I was originally thinking in terms of how people interact, communicate with, and relate to one another. Are our relationships really all that different from works of art or acts of creation?
The Everyday Poet 