Chemotherapy Poem
Posted 10/4/2009
Posted in
And the title of this blog is not a pair of words that I ordinarily use together!
This wonderful poem was sent to me by a woman whom I know from Revolution Health days. Her note and the accompanying poem are self-explanatory.
This was written by a friend from Illinois and submitted to our local Icon festival which is taking place this week. This woman has undergone multiple chemo sessions and a stem cell transplant...She asked me to read it for her at our public reading...I will read mine entitled Requiem 9/11 which was written after the Durango Choral Society sang the Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall but I'm not sure I can make it through this one because of the sorrow of her experience, yet there is an element of hope that may make it possible. I have someone else in the wings should I decide against it.
Last year's winning poem was also based on Chemotherapy and it would not surprise me one bit if this one wins this year...
Anyway, I'm sure you may share this with anyone else who may appreciate it...
The Summer of the Coneflowers
The summer of the coneflowers--
The summer of chemotherapy--
The summer of the coneflowers won.
The prairie hill covered with purple coneflowers,
Cascading purple, shouting purple, waving purple.
Grandkids hide in the long prairie grasses,
Their heads crowned with coneflowers,
Along with black-eyed susans, yellow coreopsis, rosinweed.
They touch the coneflower's rough center and marvel that it's "spiky;"
They savor the rich purple, the softness of the petals.
Climbing through the long wet morning prairie grasses,
They reach the hill top, survey the town below
As if it were a kingdom.
They sit on the ground to sketch,
They are one with the prairie.
Free from the hospital, I breathe deeply.
The sun crowns my hairless head.
The moment is now; the kingdom is here,
I have come to worship; I have come to praise.
@CarolRedmore2009
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