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A poem about counting our blessings.
PROGERIA cancer poem in Genghis Lotus Poetry Collection, a selection of poems free to read online. Webmaster for this site is poet Hugh Cook, born in Britain, educated in New Zealand, and the author of, amongst other works, the fantasy series Chronicles of an Age of Darkness. |
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We count our blessings. Progeria Is old age come in adolescence, A twist on death Cruel beyond any imagined torment. But not, my love, our problem. Other people's disasters Have a use. Our "we not so" is a payoff For which we no longer remember the lottery ticket. But we did luck out, yes. Big time. Our child is perfect. The kid next door is autistic, Cries for hours From a trap which has no opening. In Japanese, the word for autism is jiheisho. Sho, a syndrome, a medical condition. Hei, closed. Ji, the self. The self closed against the world, Strident with cataclysm, A million optimisms Deleted from the equation. Our problem, my love, Is not progeria, Autism, The Down's syndrome you were reading about Just before the birth ... Our problem, Or, more exactly, mine, Is keeping the cancer drama under household control, Managing not the art of dying But the art of life ongoing. Ongoing At least for the moment. My duty Is not to die But to persist in a mode of competence And endure. |
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May be photocopied for classroom use |
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Paperback Book or US $5 PDF file |
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CANCER POEMS: poetry about having cancer, about pressing on with life, about facing death and thinking about mortality, and about suffering damage from radiation therapy, this being in the form of brain damage and partial blindness. Don't miss the praise poem for Saddam Hussein, SADDAM IS GUILTY
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CANCER MEMOIR: read the full text of the brain cancer memoir Cancer Patient free online. Initial problems, diagnosis, neurosurgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and the achievement of remission. Read free online or buy as a paperback book from Amazon.com.
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CANCER BLOG: following remission, brain cancer seems to have returned. Further investigations follow. The author investigates the mechanism of his death. The author's deteriorating vision turns out to be the consequence of radiation therapy, not the return of cancer. Blog entries deal with survivorhood issues including dealing with degraded vision and with brain damage caused by chemo and radiation. The online entries are part of the literary miscellany This Is A Picture Of Your God, available from Amazon.com.
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