Category Archives: Full Blooming CD

Dealing with Darkness

I don’t think I am alone in feeling a lot of personal darkness these days. The news is filled with it. A Facebook post yesterday from Karla McLaren, M.Ed., reminded me of this poem from my CD, Full Blooming:Selections from a Poetic Journey. I chose poems for the CD to represent all of life and this was one aspect. Please feel free to share. Thank you.

12/22/02

Darkness So Absolute

When I am in the darkness
so absolute no light escapes or enters,
I can consider the idea that light exists
and remember and reminisce.

Though the tunnel seems eternal,
and I navigate by running ragged hands along rough walls,
I am willing to entertain the possibility
that eventually I will again escape into sun.

It has already been decided,
much to my relief, that I will not take my life;
love binds me here and I accept that as fact.
And so, in darkness, I sit or I walk

or I wait or I pray for the lifting of heavy sky.
And thus far, it has always lifted.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2002

Listen my reading on track #40. The CD is available in digital or physical form.

cd-cover

In Remembrance and Healing

Should We

be known
by our scars
or by how far
we’ve come since
that wounding?

Could we
look at
where we are,
not
where we’ve been
and what’s been done?

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 1996

I wrote this poem in August of 1996, after surgery for breast cancer and right before chemotherapy. It came to mind today in honor of remembering 9/11/2001. And all the various kinds of scars of life. This is one of my poems I know by heart…and use still in all kinds of challenges. Please feel free to share.

AEAB-front-cover

From my book, As Easy as Breathing: Reclaiming Power for Healing and Transformation

Listen to it on track 9 of my CD, Full Blooming: Selections from a Poetic Journal

Read these previous 9/11 posts:
On This Particular Day
Poems as Memory

Christmas Cricket

Merry Christmas! Here is a poem I often post at Christmas, remembering and being grateful. Maybe a chuckle. The context: In 1996 as Christmas approached I had just finished chemotherapy, which had followed surgery and I was just beginning extensive radiation treatment for breast cancer. I was kind of out of it, but trying to function. Our kids were young and my husband and I wanted to have a “normal” Christmas, with gifts and tree and Christmas dinner. Here is it story of that dinner. Enjoy. And share if you wish.

Christmas Cricket

Just when I thought
nothing could shake me,
a cooked cricket
showed up on our Christmas turkey,

not crispy, but thoroughly well done,
black body sprawled across a browned thigh.

Awakened by the warmth of the oven
from winter hibernation
in a dark, safe place—the roaster,

it began the final journey
in ever increasing heat
and then succumbed,
at least where we could see

before taking a crunchy bite.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 1996

From As Easy as Breathing

AEAB-front-cover

and listen to track 19 on my CD, Full Blooming

This Is the Moment I Have

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This poem has been in my head the last few days. A bit of context: I wrote it after healing from multiple sclerosis and then rehab. And then, at age 44, after diagnosis with two breast tumors, one in each breast. Followed by surgery, chemo and radiation. Appreciating the healed body, reminding myself of all I am grateful for. So here it is:

This Is the Moment I Have

not tomorrow
with its joy or sorrow.

This is the moment—
when I floss my teeth,
and stand on two strong legs,

smiling in the mirror
at a face topped by hair.
This moment of easy breathing

with husband and children
deeply sleeping nearby.
This moment with fresh, cool

spring air blowing in my window
from a dark, rich night capped by stars.
This is the moment I have,

not next week or next month,
however much time and energy
I spend planning them.

How often am I actually
here…
in this only moment I have?

From my book, As Easy as Breathing: Reclaiming Power for Healing and Transformation.

breathing1

And track 25 on my CD, Full Blooming: Selections from a Poetic Journal.

Feel free to share. Thanks for reading. Do you know this feeling?

Seasonal Smile: Christmas Cricket

In 1996, at this time of year, I had just finished chemotherapy for breast cancer. Surgery was behind me and radiation treatments were ahead. Our small family of four was trying to have a “normal’ Christmas. We put up the tree and decorations, wrapped presents for our two young kids. My husband made the traditional turkey dinner. In the flurry of activity (and some haze of chemo fog on my part) came this poem (based on a true story): To hear me read it (Track 19 on my CD, Full Blooming)

Christmas Cricket

Just when I thought
nothing could shake me,
a cooked cricket
showed up on our Christmas turkey,

not crispy, but thoroughly well done,
black body sprawled across a browned thigh.

Awakened by the warmth of the oven
from winter hibernation
in a dark, safe place—the roaster,

it began the final journey
in ever increasing heat
and then succumbed,
at least where we could see

before taking a crunchy bite.

On my CD, Full Blooming
(Listen to poem)

From my book, As Easy as Breathing
(Eric Hoffer Award Honorable mention
in Self-help/ Spiritual)

Joy Angel from Barbara Copyright MDMikus 2009

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