Poetry Hut Blog

Poetry News:

1. — Marvell’s great poem manages to be serious and light, epic and personal, as aware of the pleasures of the flesh as the transience of life —
2. — Jared Smith comes to read and interview! - Nov 16,2008
   from Jane Crown’s Poetry Radio —
3. — What do John Milton and the elephant Babar have in common? —
4. — The magpie who came to stay: Artist Frieda Hughes has an unexpected house guest to her dream garden —
5. — This custom of composing verses jointly, with mysterious reverberations between them, surely lies behind the collaborative sequence in the first book, which has two titles, aligned together, because it has two authors —
6. — A public arts project in St. Paul, Minn., inscribes poems on neighborhood sidewalks. —
7. — St. Louis poet Donald Finkel inspired dozens of poets —

I still have a few days of pre-scheduled blog posts. After that I am finished for a while. I try to do right by poetry, poets, but I don’t have any energy left right now. Uuuuuuunnnnnnnnnngggggg.

I have a week and a half of medical tests scheduled at VUMC next month & I’ve ordered those dorky anti-gravity pants. I don’t care if I look like an idiot. Take care, have a great Thanksgiving, and I shall return.

Poetry News new Saturday SCIENCE! edition:

1. — Computers figuring out what words mean —
2. — From cartilage to fruit-fly wings, physicist studies ’squishiness’ in everyday things —
3. — Please submit a 5 line poem by Monday, September 22 at 3pm (Japan Standard Time). [Space Poem Chain Vol. 5: JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency] —
4. — Scientists watch as listener’s brain predicts speaker’s words —
5. — Although readers keep shifting to the Internet, Esquire magazine’s editor is sure print isn’t dying, and he aims to prove it Monday by unveiling a 75th-anniversary issue with a cover that features electronic ink. —
6. — A Université Laval research team has demonstrated that intellectual work induces a substantial increase in calorie intake —
7. — People who react more strongly to bumps in the night, spiders on a human body or the sight of a shell-shocked victim are more likely to support public policies that emphasize protecting society over preserving individual privacy —

I had no idea that I really don’t have the slightest idea where my body is, in space, LOL. I always knew I was (putting it kindly) nonathletic, but this is me in physical therapy: “Am I doing it right? Like this?”
PT: “Uhm. Ack. Not that far.”
Me: “Geez, I’m such a dork, haha.”
PT: “Aw, no you’re not.”
Me: “It’s OK; I accept that I’m a dork haha.”

I’m almost maxed out on PT appointments. >:(

hahaha

link (I can’t do that btw, my skin involvement is mild.)

I guess when that program aired, people were p.o.’d at it, so ABC put a transcript of the interview with like one of the only scientists who is studying EDS. I am taking part in the NIH study mentioned - I had blood drawn for it this week. Those interviews are kind of grim. I am doing well in the pool with PT though and am not unoptimistic.

Interview With Dr. Nazli McDonnell, Part 1

Interview With Dr. Nazli McDonnell, Part 2

Anyway, STEP RIGHT UP here is a free chapbook pdf of my sideshow poems. It is for sale for $5.55 for a regular copy.

Hey

I’ll be back around May 1st. Since my Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome diagnosis :/ my body has been somewhat falling apart haha. I don’t know if it is some weird psychosomatic shock, or this is a slide into physical disability or this is a temporary musculoskeletal freakout or ?.

The geneticist offered to refer me to a pain clinic when I was diagnosed but I said nah when she asked, although I have changed my mind haha and am waiting for a referral.

I’m trying an anti-inflammatory diet, exercise, I’m learning reiki, going to the chiropractor, etc. I bet I start PT again too. Mostly I am still, like, WTF? and as the primary breadwinner of the family (i.e. I pay the mortgage, have the job with health insurance, etc.) I am fighting a tendency to play catch with various scenarios in my head, all of which involve wrack and ruin WRACK! AND! RUIN!, hahaha. Plus there is the underlying fear of “am I going to be in this much pain - or worse - for the rest of my life?” And I have a weirdly high pain tolerance. Not that I enjoy pain. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that haha.)

I’m lucky though, from what I have read, a lot of people with EDS go years or decades without a diagnosis (it’s a rare condition) and/or a diagnosis of “it is all in your head.” Evidently, somatoform disorder is the new “hysteria.”

If you are looking for a orthopedic doctor in Nashville, I can recommend Dr. William B. Kurtz at Tennessee Orthopedic Alliance. He’s the smarty pants who noticed the EDS symptoms. The Division of Medical Genetics at Vanderbilt confirmed it, during a very thorough 3+ hour office visit.

Anyway, this is the last time I’ll probably blog about this so much; this whole thing is a drag. I know that readers come here for poetry news. I’m going to blog EDS stuff at Bad Glue — there’s a placeholder there now.

I’ll be back in the beginning of May, I think.