How lucky am I to have all of you as friends? Thank you for your poetry and love and cards and gifts and warmth...your support is amazing. And thanks to Lily, my friend and Dorit's 4-year old daughter, for her get well wish (above). Lily, it's beautiful.
Tomorrow is chemo #4, the last of the harsher chemo. By this time tomorrow I will be able to say that I'm halfway through the treatment. I don't look forward to tomorrow, but I really look forward to having it over. Chemo really teaches one to stay "in the moment": if I think about the actual treatment I can make myself really sick. I have concentrated all week just staying present and not going there and that has been a good practice.
I'll sign off and be back in contact in a few days.
With much love and appreciation,
Kip
Hi Kip,
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of you today, and I'm sure everyone else in the Kip community is, too. Hope you can feel the positive energy, and that today goes smoothly.
K
Remember
ReplyDeleteRemember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star's stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is. I met her
in a bar once in Iowa City.
Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother's, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe. I heard her singing Kiowa war
dance songs at the corner of Fourth and Central once.
Remember that you are all people and that all people are you.
Remember that you are this universe and that this universe is you.
Remember that all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember that language comes from this.
Remember the dance that language is, that life is.
Remember.
~ Joy Harjo ~
(How We Become Human)
Hey Kip. Here's one for October...and for today.
ReplyDeleteAbbie
"October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came-
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band."
- George Cooper, October's Party
"It Felt Love"
ReplyDeleteHow
Did the rose
Ever open its heart
And give to this world
All its
Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
Against its
Being,
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too
Frightened
From The Gift: Poems by Hafiz
Ciao Bella,
ReplyDeleteGood to hear that you are being well fed, body and soul.
Here are a few words from Rumi.
What Was Said to the Rose
What was said to the rose that made it open was said
to me here in my chest.
What was told the cypress that made it strong
and straight, what was
whispered the jasmine so it is what it is, whatever made
sugarcane sweet, whatever
was said to the inhabitants of the town of Chigil in
Turkestan that makes them
so handsome, whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush
like a human face, that is
being said to me now. I blush. Whatever put eloquence in
language, that's happening here.
The great warehouse doors open; I fill with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugarcane,
in love with the one to whom every that belongs!