Sunday 5 October 2014

Post the Hundred-and-Eleventh - Letters to my Legs I

Since I posted on the first I've had some really busy days. On Thursday I spent three hours getting fitted for a new chair and seating - at last! - and on Friday I had Botox injections to relax some of the muscles in my legs, before using yesterday to recover. I want to write about both of these days in more detail but, because the next few are also pretty hectic, I won't have time. So, in order that I get back to regular posting, I've decided to offer a short poem each day for your perusal - in the form of letters addressed to my legs - to explain what I'd like to gain from this most recent round of injections. Hope you like.

I

Dear Legs,

Sometimes we don't get on that well.
You squeeze, I shriek, and any attempt
at a truce is almost literally like
getting blood from a stone -
because my muscles have turned to rock.

But I try to remember that 
I am my own Medusa,
though with little need for a mirror 
to show the damage I cause myself.
For all our fights, we are the same.

It seems, too, that flesh and bone are thicker even 
than the healing waters of my beloved hydro pool.
So we make the best of a spasmy situation,
turning tears into teaching, until poison
is palatable - and botulism bliss.

I send you to Coventry, tagging along
for the early autumnal drive,
sleepless though soon to be slumbering,
our mutual silence assured by an aura of anaesthesia
and the swish of a signed consent form.

Now you have our lethal nectar
trickling through your tendons,
will you, my weary wanderers,
call time on your tyranny?
I tiptoe in tentative hope.

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Post the Hundred-and-Tenth - on dissertations and dear friends

I'm back!

Having been absent from this blog for quite a while now, it feels somehow apt that I return to writing with my hundred-and-tenth post, albeit a short one to fill you in on where I am in my life. I have finished my dissertation, and consequently my MA in Text & Performance, the first of my two Master's degrees. 

(That sentence will contain a surprise for most of you, I imagine - namely the 'two' - which I will explain in a forthcoming update. I promise.)

For now, though, I just want to express my gratitude for the wonderful people who have helped me get to this point on my journey. This summer has been a rocky one, in all sorts of ways, but it has also reminded me of what fabulous creatures we humans are - how we come together and support each other when we most need it, and find laughter along the way.

So yeah. Soppy returning post done. Thanks.

Love you all

Jxxxx