Donna

[PrinceMyshkin]

Donna

There is no 5th Amendment
to protect us
from having to bear witness
to our own death.

You lie in your hospital bed
in Thunder Bay,
the most intimate witness
to a vicious game of Pac-Man
of which your body is the battleground,
and the Humerus, the Lung, the Phalanges,
the Femur, the Patella
are battle sites
as notorious and hard-fought in their way
as the Somme, Ypres, Dunkirk, Sarajevo, Iwo Jima, Dien Bien Phu...

Cancer is the body’s deicide, the lie
at the heart of life. Death
is a genetic command performance.

[Pendragon]

Touching... I can feel the sadness eminating from this poem

[PrinceMyshkin]

Touching... I can feel the sadness eminating from this poem

Thank you indeed. The saddest part of it for me was the deep feeling of futility I felt as I wrote it, knowing that even if I could make it 1,000 times better than I did, it woul;d not do one d*mned thing to alleviate her situation.

I hesitated a long time before showing it to her but eventually did and was enormously relieved when she expressed her profound appreciation!

[windblown]

I can imagine your feeling of futility in the face of such a hideous disease, but writing in defiance of all that - and writing so profoundly and so touchingly well is the only thing one can do. Your poem is very moving.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I can imagine your feeling of futility in the face of such a hideous disease, but writing in defiance of all that - and writing so profoundly and so touchingly well is the only thing one can do. Your poem is very moving.


Thank you so much. Writing it was a struggle in which my love and aching for my friend was at war with my desire to write a 'good' poem. I fought to keep out of it anything that might reflect well on me, on my abilities to turn a good phrase or a striking image. And as I believe I said elsewhere, I had another struggle afterwards whether to show it to Donna or not. Our friendship had begun with and flourished via commenting on each other's poems, but this one after all put before her the prospect of her death. Granted, she has faced that and as much as one can, as much as I understand from her, has come to terms with it.

Notwithstanding your and Pendragon's appreciative comments, the one that meant more than any other could possibly mean to me was Donna's profound appreciation of the poem when I did, finally, show it to her.

[qimissung]

I see you showed it to her and decided to post it. It is indeed a fine poem, and I'm not at all surprised that Donna liked it. More than anyone I've ever known, and I don't really know her except through here, she seems able to just take things in.

My favorite line..."deicide...the lie at the heart of life."---and the first stanza. Reading it makes me want to cry, because although we like to pretend otherwise, life is such a fragile thing after all.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I see you showed it to her and decided to post it. It is indeed a fine poem, and I'm not at all surprised that Donna liked it. More than anyone I've ever known, and I don't really know her except through here, she seems able to just take things in.

Yes, that's Donna. This is maybe the worst, but not the first crisis she has survived


My favorite line..."deicide...the lie at the heart of life."---and the first stanza. Reading it makes me want to cry, because although we like to pretend otherwise, life is such a fragile thing after all.

Thank you. And thank goodness you read "deicide" correctly instead of thinking, as one of the readers of it did, that it was a typo for decide!

[Virgil]

I thught it was very touching too. I'm not sure I care for the pac-man metaphor. It's kind of a cliche, at least visually (you kind of see it around as a cartoon). But it says it.

On personal note, is Donna Cdn? Is there any new news of her condition? Has she gotten worse?

[PrinceMyshkin]

I thught it was very touching too. I'm not sure I care for the pac-man metaphor. It's kind of a cliche, at least visually (you kind of see it around as a cartoon). But it says it.

On personal note, is Donna Cdn? Is there any new news of her condition? Has she gotten worse?

Yes, I quite see the problem with the Pac-Man analogy. The cartoon potential you mention is indeed very far from the effect the poem needed in that place.

Yes, Donna is CdnReader. Her condition is very fragile. The standard treatments were not having the desired effect and on the other hand were causing her lots of discomfort so she discontinued them and was moved into palliative care where the only medication she receives is to manage her pain.

[Virgil]

Yes, I quite see the problem with the Pac-Man analogy. The cartoon potential you mention is indeed very far from the effect the poem needed in that place.

Yes, Donna is CdnReader. Her condition is very fragile. The standard treatments were not having the desired effect and on the other hand were causing her lots of discomfort so she discontinued them and was moved into palliative care where the only medication she receives is to manage her pain.

Oh that is sad. May God bless her.

[ampoule]

So tender the poem of friendship and care.

[PrinceMyshkin]

So tender the poem of friendship and care.

Thank you, dear Ruadh, I'm far from the only person who feels this way about dear, dear Donna...