Category Archives: Video poem series

18–“The Answer” from “Frazzle”

Any chronic problem—whether of the body, mind, emotions or spirit, whether an individual, a family, or the community—sometimes it takes over your life and sometimes it just pops up like an inflated balloon held under water that surfaces now and then, asking for attention.

In this poem, for me, it was a recurring abdominal hernia, but for you it’s probably something very different. There’s a lot of mystery to healing.

“…What once was built, can be re-built
that is not the question.

The answer of course
is yes.
Clearly changes are called for.”

Here is Poem 18, “The Answer,” from “Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing.” Listen here: https://youtu.be/uFd1_5cJE7Y

What changes are you ready (or almost ready) to make in the name of healing…not just for you, but to radiate all around you?

     For more video poems from “Frazzle”

17–“For John” from “Frazzle”

What do you remember about the choices you made and the chances you took to get where you are right now? Is this where you were headed when you set off?

Poem 17, “For John,” from Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing. Listen here: https://youtu.be/4eHOAzWp-fw

For more video poems from “Frazzle”

16–“Pam” from “Frazzle”

I am grateful for the many gracious and generous people who came to my aid in my ongoing healing process. Some were in the medical realm. Some were family and friends, and some passed briefly through my life, perhaps delivering a few lines that gave hope or lifted me out of darkness.

It took me 9 months to assemble the poems from Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine—what to leave in, what to take out, the editing, re-writing, and designing. Then, I thought of it as a “lifeboat through hard times,” poems to perhaps give voice to loss and offer comfort. Now, I mostly see all the help that came to me on the journey: the walks, music, inner guidance, books, nature, people…

My poems act as memory. This poem tells the story of a woman who helped me years ago. And refers to the previous poem about the gifts of remodeling—clearing away what is no longer serving. I am a saver. I have a hard time letting go things that once were dear to me. One way I’ve found is to take photographs, as many as I need. And then let them go. (It can also help to find a good home for certain things, as in this case.)

Listen to “Pam,” Poem 16 from Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing: https://youtu.be/DfovFAC842U

Does this poem bring anyone to mind from your own life? Perhaps you were the “Pam” for someone else?

Listen to more video poems from “Frazzle”

THROWN AGAIN into the FRAZZLE MACHINE: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing

15–“Remodeling as a Transformative Device (Better than Illness)” from “Frazzle”

In 2009 the world was in the midst of a major financial crisis and both of our grown kids temporarily moved back home while they tried to find jobs. Somehow we had chosen that time to remodel our house. What started as a specific project in the kitchen, expanded to a much-needed update of most of the house. My office was the only untouched room, although full of stuff from elsewhere. Stephen and I went from being well-adjusted on our own, in a quiet place, to true chaos. In a good way, of course.

Over the years, major illnesses have often been my teacher. I’ve gained many insights and deep healing of body, mind, emotions, and spirit. Was there any other—perhaps gentler—way to heal the past and transform my life? Poem 15, “Remodeling as a Transformative Device (Better than Illness),” answers that question. Listen here: https://youtu.be/TM_AvrHwE_Y

FROM:

THROWN AGAIN into the FRAZZLE MACHINE: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing

Listen to more video poems from “Frazzle”

14–“Scene: The Future” by Margaret Dubay Mikus

Some background:
In 2007 I was diagnosed with my third breast cancer tumor following a routine mammogram. Further testing showed I carry a BRCA 2 mutation, one of the genes which can lead to an increased risk of cancer. (My molecular genetics science-self found this to be a very interesting gene–as long as I didn’t think of it as affecting me.) I was stunned. This was 11 years after my previous cancer diagnosis and I thought I was done with all that.

It was summer. I sat on my garden swing in the back of the yard, to let the fear subside. I listened to my inner guidance and let the answer come to me…what to do? After gathering information and consulting with many people: doctors, family, dear friends, I decided to have the bilateral (double) mastectomy. Since I had so much radiation with the previous treatment, the tissue was very scarred and I did not to do reconstruction, a very personal choice. This is the kind of decision that jars you not just at the time, but later, when grief for what is lost can surface unexpectedly.

Writing continued to be essential to me during that time. Although not many of those poems have been published, my chapbook, New Year’s Eve Surgery, has a few poems I collected to give to my medical team. I needed them to know something about me—after all, they would be doing a very personal surgery and had not even met me beforehand. My sister had the idea for the entire medical team to sign my copy of the chapbook and they wrote me amazing healing notes of support. My poems changed the conversations from very medical and impersonal to very human and healing.

What insights came to you through medical experiences?

In Poem 14, “Scene: The Future,” from Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine, I am thinking ahead to a future when cancer treatment may have changed a lot. Listen here: https://youtu.be/05q2-bgEpQo

Listen to more video poems from “Frazzle”

THROWN AGAIN into the FRAZZLE MACHINE: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing