Marion’s Garden of Hope
                   Last year’s garden was bleak,
                  A few annuals were all she could do,
                  Mammograms and Lumpectomies,  Radiation and Reconstruction
                  They took up most of her time.
 
                 This year’s sun is stronger and brighter,
                 She’s planting perennials now.
                 Gaillardia and Primula, Rudbeckia and Hosta,
                 Perennials for all those years to come!
 
I wrote that poem in 2007. It was written about my wife’s battle with Breast Cancer. Her mental strength through life’s tests, not just dealing with her Cancer, is what keeps me going. Death of an [ ... ]

Deep, deep inside us, are words, words just waiting and hoping to be released. They might not be about your Cancer, but they wait just the same.
This poem, written for last week’s meeting, dwells on a distant memory. But it reads as though it just happened.
 
 
Mom’s Heart Attack
 
My dad’s call came at night.
“No need to rush up here;
She’ll be all right.”
 
I left home with fears and hopes.
Orange and yellow woods lined the highway–
She was in the autumn of her [ ... ]

    Our latest  home prompt really brought back memories:
Were you ever in a contest or competition? What prompted you to participate? What made the experience meaningful to you? 
    In 1983 I ran the Boston Marathon.
    It all started in 1977. I was 48 years old, one year shy of the age of my father when he died of a heart attack. Frightened because he and both of his sisters all died before 50 of heart problems, I started jogging, [ ... ]

If you had the power to bring three people back to life, from a list of everyone that has ever lived on this earth,
                  1. who would they be?
                  2. how did you decide?
This was a  writing prompt at a recent WFW meeting. Selections ranged from a family dog, to late President John F Kennedy. These were my selections:
    My son John, who died of a drug overdose 20 years ago. I’d like him to have a reprieve from his one, huge mistake.
    The next [ ... ]

As part of one lesson, I ask students to think about a family incident or story that has been on their minds. Some of their stories deal with conflicts that came with the trials and frustrations of cancer diagnosis and treatment. I often tell about the son of one of my closest friends who said he felt it was “too depressing” to visit his father in the hospital where he was battling cancer. When the father recovered, their relationship had [ ... ]