Interlude: Other People's Poetry

Photo: Eric Montfort // CC BY-ND 2.0

The Destination
by Jane Hirshfield

I wanted something, I wanted. I could not have it.
Irremediable rock of refusal, this world thick with bird song,
tender with starfish and apples.
How calming to say, "Turn right at the second corner,"
and be understood,
and see things arrive as they should at their own destination.
Yet we speak in riddles—
"Turn back at the silence." "Pass me the mountain."
To the end we each nod, pretending to understand.

May Is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Awareness Month

art by Lora Mathis

May Is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Awareness Month.

No other disease in the history of medicine has been neglected in such a way.

--Dr. Rodney Grahame

I cannot think of a single illness that needs more awareness than EDS. It is not taught in medical school; most doctors have never heard of it. 

EDS is a genetic disorder that causes defective connective tissue. I was born with it, and started showing what would later be recognized as symptoms very young. 

I was not diagnosed until just before my 30th birthday.

In the intervening time, I was blamed for my illness. I was told by an allergist that I was making it up, that I was "doing it for attention". I was told by an emergency room doctor that "women just have pain sometimes." I was told by a neurologist that I was "performing illness" to cope with some suppressed childhood trauma. I was told that what I was experiencing was not real. 

My experience is not uncommon. The average time to diagnosis for people with EDS is ten years. Most of those people are women.

For you and your loved ones--because you likely know somebody who has EDS and does not yet know--just learn the basics.

I've written a little about the experience of living with EDS and its comorbidities in Pacific Standard, Luna Luna, and Quail Bell magazines.

This website is for my writing. But at times, my illness makes it difficult and even impossible to write, and I wanted you to know why.

Unrequited

Some more welcome news: two of my space poems will appear in the book Unrequited: An Anthology of Love Poems About Inanimate Objects. It's a terrific collection, and I'm really happy to be a part of it.

I'll be reading both poems at the book launch party on Friday, June 17 at 7 p.m. at Upshur Street Books in D.C. Come say hi, eat some snacks, and hear some poems. Maybe buy a book. If that's not a good way to spend a Friday night, I don't know what is.

More details are here.

Time-Lapse

Time-Lapse
A rose
A bow
A star

A hand
A fist
A jaw

In pink
In red
In blue-violet, mauve

New Essay in Luna Luna

I wrote about chronic illness, love, and The Fountain in Luna Luna magazine this week.

You can read the essay here: To the Man Who Would Save Me from My Own Life

February 14, Columbia Heights

Photo: "Wrapped for Sale" by Garry Knight

There is always someone
     yelling
just outside the Metro station.
Today, no different, but what
this man is protesting
    or exalting
I can't tell from here.

It's two syllables, 
the yelling man's chant,
shouted 
    over and over. 

I stop at the crosswalk, ducking
the upward-flap rustle of pigeons.

The light changes; the cars slow.
Yes. I hear it now.

RO-SES, the yelling man yells.
RO-SES. ROSES.

Art with an Agenda

Refined

Linda Gass creates gorgeous stitched paintings of the Western United States. They're deceptively lovely; each one is also a map of environmental damage.

I talked to Linda about her work. “I try to lure people in with that beauty to get them to confront the hard issues we face,” she said.

Well, it worked for this viewer. I'm totally hooked.

Read more over at mental_floss.