Tag Archives: ocean

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Linking social media

OOO, today’s assignment for Blogging 101: Plug in to social networks.
I am not ready to attach fully to Facebook, honestly.
I also lurk on Sermo, which is a supposedly “secure” site for physicians, though why anyone would imagine anything on the internet is secure… dunno. I have found advertising aimed at companies that want to reach doctors, saying advertise on Sermo. So I am a bit careful of what I do there. They offer prizes for doing surveys, but I figure that that information goes right to the pharmaceutical companies. I don’t participate in the surveys….I’ve written on everything2 since 2005, well, really didn’t do much until 2007, but anyhow….
Got a Facebook page, go to Linked in occasionally, and have email…. AUGH!! I don’t want to be too wired. Reminds me of when we got our pagers in medical school, third year. We were thrilled. That wore off pretty darn quickly on call. Also, I date back to voice pagers, then numerical pagers and now people can text…. change change change….

I will think about the Facebook connection, but I am not ready yet. Also, my teenage daughter says I share too much on Facebook anyhow. Particularly dance videos. I LOVE TO DANCE. Couples dancing since, well, since I was a 17 year old exchange student to Denmark…. and that’s another story.

Sunrise! A new day! More change!

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Homebody

How funny that the traditional positions are reversed

you to be the homebody
while I go out to fight

I am still struggling with what you have chosen

say yes to everything

because so much of the time you don’t answer

I take that as a brush off, you know
silencing
you don’t want to hear it
you don’t want to discuss it

you have your interests

I am interested in everything

but particularly people
what makes them tick

and discrimination
which makes me want to wade in
with my sword
and carve people into mincemeat

perhaps I am to learn patience from you

perhaps this is a respite

perhaps this is a safe place to retreat

you have been fighting for a long time
I am glad that you have laid down your sword
and are finding rest

though sometimes I think you are missing things
withdrawn from the present world

I see that you seem happy in the past

I am trying to accept that

meanwhile, I am well enough

to pick my sword back up

and wade in.

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the problem with angels

the problem with angels

the problem with angels
is that they aren’t grey

nor do they have color

they are black
or white

sort of boring, really

pick one side
good or evil
night or day
male or female

I would rather be fluid

I want to be able to transform

liquid to solid
solid to gas
gas to solid
gas to liquid

flow around things

seep into the earth

always always
return to the sea

keep your wings

project black or white
as you choose
on me

while I flick water at you
and go for a swim

also published on everything2 today

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Hard 

It's hard to let go of you
and stay present

I don't know why
The Beloved set me this task
I argue and struggle
a fly in Her web
But I hold still when She bites me
Paralyzed by love

You connect me to Beloved
that's what I want
Like a spring
Like a stream
Like a geyser
Like a tsunami
Like an ocean
I am lost in the depths

It's ok really
I am used to pain
I am used to the air hurting like knives
When I draw breath

Oh Beloved
The sky is crying hard with hail
while I write this

It's hard to let go of you
and stay present

Luckily I have so much to cry about
That you can't tell which tears
are about you
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Teamwork

The photo is of a synchronized swim trio.

Only one swimmer is really visible. She is being lifted by the other two. They are not allowed to touch to bottom at all. It is all done lifting their own or each other’s bodies out of the water by swimming.

Sychronized swimming is a shrinking sport in the United States, because it is such hard work. My daughter started at age seven and had to swim three laps. She made it one length and then had to hold on to the lane divider to rest during the rest of the laps. She went under three separate times during that first practice. I nearly jumped the divider all three times, but she came up each time.

“How was it?” I asked when she got out.

“I nearly drowned three times.” she said, stomping past me in a rage.

She says that she hated it for the first year and that I made her keep going. If I did, I would feel guilty, except that she loved it so much after that. Seven years of synchronized swimming, until our very small town team folded, and then swim team. She is now a junior. What she wants most in college is to continue to swim on a team.

Back to the photo. To be lifted straight out of the water that far, you must be in the right position, you must have very good core strength, and your two partners must be in the right position underwater and lift correctly. You must practice and practice and practice and practice.

And you do this in time to music.

We need to work as a team in the world to deal with infection, to deal with ebola, to work together. My daughter loved synchronized swimming because it is so challenging and because it is above all, teamwork.

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Powergirl takes off

The photo yesterday is of my daughter on the beach, but she is in the air. She is not touching the ground at all. And today the picture is my son airborne at the beach. I wrote this poem in 2005. When I found each of those photographs, I thought of this poem.

Why, you say, does this poem leave the articles out? I went to high school in Alexandria, Virginia. Yes, I was a Titan and graduated from there. In Alexandria when we were really angry or really passionate, the articles got dropped. I try not to talk like this in the northwest, because people get scared. I am also influenced by Walt Kelly’s Pogo and all of the messing around with language and spelling. Stephen Fry on language (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY) is a lovely comfort!

Previously published on everything2 August 25, 2009.

Powergirl takes off
Powergirl have wings
to fly
She related to
Superfly
She scared when
baby almost die
She scared and yes’n’she
do cry

Husband say she much
too strong
He say she most allays
wrong
He sing and dance de
same old song
He rather she put on
a thong
He played too much with
that old bong

Now man he working
ooh he big
He have no time for
little kid
Not that he ever
really did

She research kidses
summer camps
She study schedules late
with lamps
Pay de money, lick de
stamps

Husband say she got too
much power
He say it nearly every
hour
He grumpy sullen and really
sour

Powergirl got wings
to fly
She look with longing
at the sky
She look at husband
wonder why

She finally realize he
a pain
She take a saw to
ball and chain
Husband he whine and
complain
She wonder why he
goddamn insane
She learn divorce lawyer
nice name

Husband lie on ground and
moan
He whine and bitch all on
de phone
Powergirl leave him there
alone
He drink and fuck and get
real stoned

Powergirl have wings
to fly
She rising rising
in the sky
Kids light as she is
hollow bones
They scared to leave
familiar home
Ride on her shoulders
in the sky
She hopes that they will
learn to fly

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mermaid

This poem is related to yesterday’s post about learning to keep my temper. I wrote it in April 2012.

mermaid

when I was born, they took my skin

i had no skin
i was frightened
i wept

a witch came
she studied me
i turned my head from the spoon

“Good,” she said, “You may refuse it if you want.”

She gave me the gift of anger

it was the only defense I had

but over the years
I studied and thought
and I found my tears
and I found my fears

i made my skin of tears
this took me many years
one tear for each hair

at last it is done
my skin
is complete

i smile at the sky
as i don it

i slip into the water
and i am gone