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Dear Camilla: Now you've made me weep. Poetry certainly gets to the root of it.... Thanks for the quick view of my soul, from which I retreat too quickly. k. >Dear PD friends---we were moved and stimulated by David Boots' posts in >which he deliberately invoked our feelings, and recognized that sharing >these is perhaps often as therapeutic as discussing Sinemet dosages. :-) >We are , of course, feeling beings, as well as collectors of facts. Our >industrious fact collecter, Wendy Tebay, who digd up all that important >info on toxins and pollution ALSO shared with us poems she had written >about how she FELT about these matters. One of the ways that I, as care- >partner for Peter, deal with my feelings is also to write poetry (another >is _dreaming_ and realizisg that many things about our life with PD are >relegated to an unconscious level, so that we can keep functioning, and come >out in our dreams.) This is all prelude to some minor risk-taking, and a wish >to share with you two poems I've written that may possibly also "speak to >your condition": > LIFE ON THE EDGE > With eyes closed, > I see us---- > standing on cliff-edge, > clinging together. > > (Not yet in free-fall, but so close at times > I almost sense the terror that would bring--- > earth giving way beneath us, > rush of air, > impact of loss---) > > Today we step back > and are saved. > > Tomorrow? > CHF, 5/18/95 > > > LOSSES > > Given a choice, I would hold fast to you-- > would stop the slow erosion of our lives. > It isn't fair, that we who've loved so long > should be the losers, even though we love. > We are not what we were, nor will we be > the travelers of our dreams, and journey far. > We try to hold the edges of our lives > and yet they slip away, out of our grasp, > Like sands the waves consume along the shore. > > The edges crumble, but the center holds--- > you are still you, and I am still myself. > That will not change. The loving will endure, > through illness, age, and death (the final loss). > I cling to what we have, and push away > the thought of how, by inches, as I watch > you seem somehow diminished, letting go > of little daily things you cannot hold. > > We walk this path together, after all, > and if you stumble, I will take your hand > and if I tremble, you will hold me tight. > All is not lost to the approaching night. > > CHF 12/16/94 >Friends, how do YOU cope? >Camilla Flintermann, Oxford,OH > > ====================================================================== Mrs. Karin M. Beros, MSO [log in to unmask] International and Area Studies voice: (510) 642-8542 Office of the Dean, 260 Stephens Hall fax: (510) 642-9466 Mail Code 2300 ======================================================================