by Steven
As the rains of hurricane season arrived in Southern New England, I thought I might be getting a sinus infection. Three courses of antibiotics failed to provide relief and a CT scan was ordered. I was cleaning a flooded basement while waiting for results. Four days before Christmas in 2005, the MRI came in as a meningioma tumor.
It took seven months to get back to work, a year and a half before I could bear to write the story down, and many surgeries to get by the tumor. I found poetry an easier form to get a brain tumor story down on paper. Poetry also drew less of a negative reaction. I discovered people would accept a snippet told in a poem more readily than in dull prose form. In the past, I had written sonnets, odes, and some more modern forms of poetry. I am still looking for a brave person to join in writing poetry about the experience of a brain tumor. In helping others with a poem, I help myself; I call poetry my therapy.
Down The Road
I look As if another road I took--
Seeing beyond tomorrow,
Hiding behind my sorrow,
For pleasures I forsook.
Down the road I see
The path laid down for me.
Others may not see this road
Beside a river—past a toad.
It's the road for me.
Down the road I find
People are not always kind;
To others I am always OK
As they enjoy a sunny day,
As if it's silver lined.
Down the road I feel
Sinews strong as steel
As down the road I trod
Getting closer to God--
As time turns like a wheel.
An Inspiration
As a poet, I'm gleaning
On an early evening
Frost-like insight
In my reading tonight--
Until it's part of being.
As a poet, relish tea,
Let Frost comfort me:
Learning poem by poem,
By poem, by poem.
Is it Frost?
Or is it me.
As a poet, I find
Chords that poets bind.
More poetry I see;
Poetry ahead of me--
An exercise of mind.
In addition to writing poetry, I draw with colored pencils, and play the classical guitar. Andres Segovia is my favorite guitar player. Paul Cezanne, Odilon Redon, Manet, Claude Lorrain, and William Turner are some of my favorite artists.
My advice to others:
Too many worry themselves out of writing.
Too many are wondering if it is good enough.
Too many hesitate to offer an opinion.
Too many consider writing unimportant.
Too many never take the chance--
Waiting until next time.
Jump in today.
