My four-year-old grandson, sitting at the table facing me, starts moving his head and trunk in the same, writhing way I move mine. Dyskinesia, a side effect of the medication I take, comes and goes. The only way of stopping these movements is to sit back and keep silent.
As I stop talking and relax, he does too.
spring moon
how strongly it pulls
the ocean
In Puddock June 30th, 2024
dawn rising…
what do the stones
tell me
Scheherazade
and the Emperor…
where do we go
from here
studio day...
working out the limits
to my ambition
healing…
the frenzied dance
of the Maenads
herb garden
the bench by the rosemary
occupied
On the fascinating question about the role rosemary plays in memory.
others
always between us…
eclipse moon
.
Happy to see the new “Haiku for Parkinson’s” blog post on The Haiku Foundation site: using haiku to reflect on, and gain a sense of control over, the ups and downs of mood in Parkinson’s. Read it here: https://thehaikufoundation.org/haiku-for-parkinsons-mood…/
#haiku4parkinsons#h4p#Parkinsons#ParkinsonsDisease#haikufound#livingwithparkinsons#MovementDisorder#Parkinson’s
April 11 is World Parkinson's Day!
.
sunlight on tulips…
the long wait may soon
be over
stone quarry...
yet another form waiting
to be freed
.
Did you know that April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month?
A month to raise awareness of this disease and share information about it with the public. The aim is to highlight the urgency of finding a cure, but also matters in need of attention while waiting for a cure. To remind ourselves too, about the different experiences, approaches and treatments available to help manage the condition. What will you be doing during the month? Sign a petition? Make a pledge to exercise more?
Whatever you do, choose an activity that engages you, inspires you, makes you smile! Play table tennis! Read a haiku! Keep talking, keep thinking, keep learning!
What is Dyskinesia? What does it feel like? How can haiku help? Reflecting on my attempts at using haiku to work through the ever-shifting challenges of Parkinson’s Disease.
“My Dyskinesia” is now part of the Haiku Foundation feature Haiku for Parkinson’s. Available to read here.
The Haiku Foundation is offering a new, free, email course “Introduction to Haiku” for people impacted by Parkinson’s Disease, including friends and family.
The course is being taught by Sonam Chhoki, editor of the online journal cattails. For more information about the course see here
Happy to see my haibun “Sky Ponds-Himmelsweicher” appear in Contemporary Haibun Online 19.2
I found out about the bomb craters in the Augsburg city forest during a walk with my Parkinson’s walking group. Marvelous recovery of a wounded landscape, and people. And apt for our own situation of struggling with progressive disease.
The Siebentischwald, on the edge of Augsburg, acts as the lung of the city. Lush green vegetation crisscrossed by water channels and dotted by silent ponds makes this forest the life force of Augsburg. It turns out it is also the repository of an interesting piece of the city’s history: the forest floor bearing the scars of thousands of bombs that were dropped on it towards the end of World War II.
On my morning walk with my Parkinson’s group, in this peaceful, green oasis, pierced by high-pitched peacock cries from the adjacent Zoo, I come across oval ponds and other depressions filled with vegetation. I am told they are Bombenkrater, the remnants of craters formed by aerial bombing.
The proximity to the munitions manufacturer Messerschmitt meant that bombs often landed in the forest. However, the massive bombing raid in February 1944 literally dug up the forest floor, leaving numerous wounds on the landscape. In recent years, a public charity transformed some of these craters into ponds brimming with life.
cool forest shade. . .
lingering by the sky ponds
heat from the past
