The prompt for this week's One Single Impression is "Stranded." This seems to have tapped into my gloomy side. I thought about trying to art this week's poems up but they are very different from each other and I couldn't think of a way to do it, so... just stuck with naked words this week. The last poem is not haiku or even quasi-haiku, but is my effort to acknowledge Autism Awareness Month. I hope you'll visit the sites I have listed and find out a little bit more about a condition that very few of us understand.
Stranded on the shore
Does the old boat long to sail
On waves of memory?
~~~~~~~~~~~
Too often alone
Stranded in my baseless fears
Agoraphobic
~~~~~~~~~~~
She does not know him
The old man plaiting her hair
Strand by strand with love
~~~~~~~~~~~
stranded by autism's cruel grasp
locked inside himself
he circles, rocks or flaps his hands
his mother hugs him with her voice
because he cannot handle touch
or look her in the eyes
he does not speak a lot
but he can hear her love
can feel it with his heart
love is so much bigger
than the limitations we put on it
when we are ready to learn
he will teach us
I hope you will all take a minute to remember that this is Autism Awareness Month. The following blogs and posts offer an opportunity to put a human face and heart on something which for most of us is just something we have heard about but don't really understand.
These are the Days
Forks Off the Moment - We are All Unique
Mother of Shrek
Full Soul Ahead
Down River Drivel
Look Me In The Eye
36 comments:
I can't do Haiku but I do appreciate it and enjoy reading it. Yours today were very moving. As was your autism poem too. Loved it.
"She does not know the man plaiting her hair" is a mysterious and disturbing piece. I like it, and all of, these, very much.
Writing in Faith: Poems
I am quite moved by all your poems today. Plaiting hair is such a loving gesture. I have a grandson that is autistic. Your poem is oh so true.
Your last haiku is haunting.
Keep advocating for people with autism. Alabama had an autism awareness rally at the State House on Thursday. Over 260 people showed up to visit their legislators and ask for help. Too many are left to fall in gaps where there is no supports and no funding streams for life after K-12 school. The house has unanimously passed a bill to solve some of the problems but the senate has yet to vote.
"love is so much bigger
than the limitations we put on it"
wonderful work Raven
Not gloomy! They are thoughtful and lovely.
Raven, I love these. They are so good! I like the different take on "Plaiting hair strand by strand..." The final poem on autism is so affecting...
I love the first two haikus and the poem which I found moving.
Another blog of note about Asperger.
Hi Jeni - thank you.
Sandy Carlson - I really like the man plaiting her hair one... it's a tiny love story about alzheimers or senility and the loss that goes with it.
Lisa at Greenbow - thank you so much. I'm glad the autism poem felt true. I mostly know what I have read and I always worry that I am off the mark.
Pam - thank you... It's so good to hear good news for parents dealing with autism.
Dianne - thank you!
I enjoyed your poems.
I especially love your words written so lovingly in the tribute to Autism.
I have eight year old autistic twins. They continue to teach me on a daily basis.
gardenpath - thanks.. I was gloomy, though. On a bit of a pity party this week.
maryt - thank you so much... the plaiting hair one was my favorite, I think.
spacedlaw - thanks about the poems and thank you for the Asperger link.
mybellavia - thank you so much. It means a lot to me that you liked the autism poem. Twins! Wow!
You've definitely tapped into stranded in various forms. I particularly am drawn to the autism and agoraphobia pieces.
i have been completely captured by the concept of plaiting strand by strand...this is such a beautiful image.
Raven, your poetry rings inside of me every week, but this week? The first poem is mine and about my life. The second could be the best description of agoraphobia I have ever read. I read the old man plaiting the girl's hair as a grandfather. What girl could know a grandfather? And the autism poem should be picked up by all the autism societies because it is so wonderfully beautiful and positive that I will never forget it.
STP - thank you... I have mixed feelings about the agoraphobia poem. It's too close to home, I guess.
qualcosa di bello - thanks... I actually really like that one myself. I don't often feel that happy with anything I've written.
andree - wow... That's a truckload of compliments. I feel overwhelmed. Thank you so much. My head is swelling, but it feels good.
Those were all amazing. Moving and truthful. You really hit the mark with the autism one also. Such a great job you did.
Very beautiful pieces. I need those today. Moved...
collected clutters
The poems certainly don't come over as all gloomy - there's tenderness in the first and third.
I used to work with a young man with Asperger's syndrome. He was artistic and he wanted to be an actor. The sad thing was that he couldn't understand that the world couldn't always provide what he wanted.
I'm not stranded with agoraphobia or autism, just with my elderly mother who has dementia. On second thoughts, she's the one who is stranded.
Thanks for visiting my blog.
vixen - thank you so much...
gautami tripani - I moved 5 times over the past six years. You have my sympathy. Glad my poems helped.
watermaid - my mother had dementia too in her last years. It's very difficult to deal with. You are probably both stranded in some ways... in different emotional places in the same physical space. dementia is cruel. The strand by strand poem was about my parents situation even though it wasn't about them literally.
Not only are your poems fabulous, but thanks for taking the time to link us to other worlds.
hi patois... Fabulous... well my head just swelled. Thank you. Glad you followed the links. They are good people/writers with a lot to share.
Inspiring work. Beautiful words and informative links. Lovely post!
..i can't help but
react thus to your writing-the prisoner had broken the jail to taste freedom.in the free world he realised a prisoner he would remain..
--can i share these lines with u ma'm[they refer to autism]--
Expression in slow motion..
Many lilies and hollyhocks
gerberas and chrysanthymums
scents of muffled up fancies flowed
musky wishful imaginings,flowered
and blossomed in the enclosures
of my mind.
A canopy of reason
to escape the acid rain
A hedge of hawthorn,
to resist being trampled upon
and that done,
a good ol' garden gate,
which however,
those tresspassing thoughts
gatecrashed,
to mingle and congregate.
Somehow,
my hedge of hawthorn,
took a long long while
to find its full expression,
joked someone
is it autistic,
artistic,may be!
and yet i got drawn
to a moment, bygone
when a crown, the Christ had worn
of the thorns of hawthorn !../original/z.g//if deemed fit please forgive the long post else hold me guilty of
shameless self promotion..
What a beautiful way to bring autism to the forefront of consciousness. Wonderfully written.
tumblewords - thank you kindly.
zoya gautam - feel free to shamelessly self promote any time. I just wish you post had been earlier so more would have gotten to read your beautiful poem.
thank you, teri c
She does not know him
The old man plaiting her hair
Strand by strand with love
This one is very special, IMHO. I see acts like this every day where I now live, in a retirement community. And, in many ways, I feel I do not know (have not ever known) the many kindnesses afforded me every day. Thank you.
thank you, roswila... that one is very special to me too. I'm usually insecure about my poetry, but I love that one. My father never braided my mother's hair, but even though she didn't know - or didn't respond to him, anyway - at the end, he never quit doing for her. I guess I wrote that for him and for all the people who deal with alzheimers and dementia and illnesses that disconnect but don't stop the love.
each poem touches
my heart this morning as I
imagine your life
glad am I that you
use technology to share
your self honestly ;--)
Hugs and blessings,
I read these a few days ago but didn't have time to leave a word for you. That third one made me catch my breath. Just amazing.
storyteller - thank you so much. I was just thinking what a blessing the computer and the blog network.
quiet paths - thank you so much. The third poem is special to me too.
..beautiful... amazing the emotions that words convey.... has touched us all... thank you
one more believer - thank you so much for your visit and for your kind words.
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