Cancer writing – Poetry In Time

I am proud that a new poetry series based on my unpublished manuscript is appearing on OncoLink, the Net’s first cancer information website. This site is associated with Penn Medicine and provides information to patients, caregivers and medical staff internationally. One handy feature is a thorough database of cancer meds, what they do and their possible side effects.

My poems appear on their Creative Inspiration page under Patients: Support and in a dedicated section, Poetry That Fits. This title suggests my authentic poetic responses to the situations and emotions I have faced as well as the sardonic irreverent tone that is often necessary. Spirituality and hope are undercurrents yet I don’t hide the grit, the fits.

Here is the link:

https://www.oncolink.org/support/resources/creative-inspiration/poetry-that-fits

My first poem has published this week and five more, one per week, will post in this set. I hope that those with cancer, and those who care for and about them, will find validation, healing, resonance, and further understanding of this unique stressful experience in our culture.

I wrote most of my poems in real time–as incidents, thoughts and emotions unfolded–then edited them into a full-length poetry memoir about the two years following a diagnosis of a plasmacytoma tumor then progression to multiple myeloma. Every time I reread my book, I underline the importance of present-minded living for myself and review the wisdom this challenge has taught me… is still teaching me.

You may relate having navigated a different turnpike. I hope these poems offer solace and company through your own traumatic events and uninvited adaptations. None of us are isolated in our struggles when we share, listen and find common ground.

Reading of “The More Moments I Find Prismatic, the Less Dark My Attic.”

The order of this first segment of poems will appear as follows:

“The More Moments I Find Prismatic, The Less Dark My Attic”
“The First Axe Falls”
“Stigmatized and Written Off”
“Looking Out, Looking In”
“I Don’t Have All the Answers”
“I Can’t Go Back”

If you would like to find out more about my unpublished full-length manuscript, fill out the form below and click, Contact Us. Currently, I am entering my book into contests and submitting it to small presses for possible publication.

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