HastyWords's Blog, page 3

MIRRORS

I’ve crawled through

Mirrors

Reflections

Dirty and broken

Bloody knees

Razor thin lines

Next to jagged little

Shattered ice kind

And I barely feel

The pain of it

Anymore

FOG MADE OF DIAMONDS

The fog

Snuggles up

Easing

Into my lungs

Small drops

Inhaled

Dew drop worlds

Pretty

Like diamonds

But

The zirconia kind

Because

I can’t afford

To breathe in

Fog

Made of diamonds

CURING GOODNESS

There are darker places

That reach like sticky tar

For just a spark of light

Hungry for the warmth

For the love it threw away

Jealousy rages from shadows

Contagious and sharp

A black bloodletting to cure

The goodness inside us

DEPRESSION AS ART

This piece is titled DEPRESSION.

Most of you know I started a blog over a decade ago. I didn’t realize at the time I was suffering from depression. My ex husband’s middle name was Hasty so I called it Hastywords. It was a family name I wanted to honor since the family name ended with him.

Then I got diagnosed with severe depression. I almost didn’t live to be diagnosed. My therapist wanted me to start listening to the voices in my head so we could dismantle and talk about them. I decided to do it online. Publicly. Some people called those thoughts poetry. They were really just what my brain was saying in shorthand. HASTYWORDS was exactly what I wrote. And people were relating.

I often get asked why HastyWords. It’s not a great artist name. But if you’ve ever heard the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” well this picture says everything in one picture I could never say in 10 years on my blog with words.

What does this painting say to you??

HastywordsArt

Be my eyes: A black canvas with a midnight rough textured center with pools of inky black reflecting pools surrounded by hundreds of bright multicolored dots.

#BeReal- Greg Gerardy

I didn’t get a chance to ask Greg’s permission to add this to my website but he’s been busy running in The Great World Race. I’ve known him since elementary school just living in the periphery of social media all these years. I read his GoFundMe tonight and well… gosh. I’ll let you read it for yourself.

I’m adding his GoFundMe with his words here so that you might be inspired by his story and that you might help him do what he has set out to do.

When I started the #BeReal series it was for my daughter. To show her that real isn’t perfection, it isn’t just one way or another. We all have different paths. Some of them are hard. Some of them you have to fight for. I hope she always fights for herself and others. I hope we do too.

Help me cheer Greg. You can follow THE GREAT WORLD RACE on Facebook.

Greg Gerardy on the right. Picture from The Great World Race.

“Hello, I am Greg Gerardy. I have only 1 functional Lung and I am looking to attempt and complete with only 1 Lung, the 7-7-7 Challenge – The Great World Race. This is 7 marathons, in 7 days, on all 7 continents. I am an ongoing cancer survivor with one functional lung and an autoimmune disorder.

Many of you have known my medical history for the past 25 years, it’s quite complex and complicated. I’ve had complex surgeries, lost function of right lung, paralysis of right shoulder/hand/eye/vocal chord, removal of ribs, clavical & pectoral muscle, removal of 1/2 right quadricep which was inserted into my chest with blood flow tied directly into heart, and have an autoimmune disease that attacks my own organs. 

Despite all this, I have overcome and would love to give HOPE to others suffering from disabilities to complete this race and show that anything is possible! 

The entry fee is being covered by my employer, Seagate, but I still have a considerable amount of other ancillary costs involved with travel, training, insurance, gear, etc. All funds raised will go to support the costs involved with completing this challenge such as trip and event insurance, travel, training expenses, event entry fees, additional gear expenses, etc.

Recognized internationally as a truly unique Disabled Athlete, my story has inspired many people around the world, especially those who share my condition or face similar challenges. I want to show everyone that having a Disability such as this does not mean giving up on your dreams or your potential.

I want to redefine this Disabilities Possibilities.I want to bring attention to the ‘invisible’ Disabilities which get little publicity since it can’t be seen; there are no prosthetics, or other replacement devices to restore any level of the lost functionality.I want to bring hope to those who share my condition or face similar challenges.I hope to bring awareness and educate the medical community who deal with 1 Lung’rs and other breathing disorders; change the medical approach to 1 Lung’rs rehabilitation.I lead by example and show what 1 Lung’rs can still achieve.I challenge those with 2 healthy lungs to get out and get active – take advantage of the health you have!

***One of the cool things about the race this year is that I have been invited by the event organizers to potentially participate as a Featured Athlete in this event in a 7-part Documentary Film Series with an Emmy Award winning film crew covering this years 7-7-7 Great World Race, which may be in Netflix and/or Amazon.”

DONATE HERE

JADED LITTLE PILL

Sometimes the choosing

Gets swallowed up whole

Nothing left to spit out

Not digestible either

A big ball of finger nails

Of furry rodent tails

Of smug little snails

And their slimy trails

The choices are none

Freewill a fantasy

I’ll pick the jade pill please

A CheerPeppers Post

JELLY FILLED MUCK

A gorgeous swan dive

Into worried cracks

Jagged and dirty

Filled like a donut

With disease

With rot

With muck

Wade in it, lung deep

Search and rescue

Efforts double sized

Hope shrinkwrapped

Into bite sized buoys

Not enough

Never enough

First come

First serve

Only one per

Oh…

You don’t qualify

Sorry

I’ve been absorbing quite a lot of worry from the world around me. Today I off-gas.

COLLECTING MOMENTS

I have always been aware

Of how fleeting moments were

My friends will be laughing

And I’ll close my eyes

And soak it all up, hoping

To never forget the sound

I’ve laid next to my daughter

As she fell asleep and I’d stay

Just trying to memorize

Her little breath, her littleness

I’ll be watching my boyfriend

How he smiles at the wonders

And I plant that happiness

Like flowers for my heart

Just in case those moments

Don’t come around again

Because last times happen

Without permission

And I want to catch

As many of them as I can

#BeReal – KERRY KIJEWSKI

Kerry Kijewski has been a #BeReal guest before a few times.

I started this series years ago to highlight real people doing real people things.  In a world that shares AI in a way that exaggerates reality everyday it might be more important than ever to keep it real.

Kerry just had an article published in the Toronto Star where she reminds us how many ways we are given to experience the world around us.  I encourage you to click on the link and read her words.

She wrote the following about the article on her Facebook page. If you can’t read the linked article reach out and I’ll send you the text.

“What a week it’s been eh? I’m taking the good with the bad right now, like so many likely are. I will keep on speaking out as long as I have the platform to do so.It happened so fast. The editor helped shape and sharpen it, with her feedback, and I still pushed for including the things I thought were most important to get across through advocating.I had my first travel essay published in The Toronto Star newspaper over the weekend, something I hadn’t imagined I’d be doing when I headed back here to Ireland.I write about my first visit to this country, how I took everything in then, and how my return last year was made all new by the fact that my remaining sight was fading hard. I want people to know that travel is just as meaningful and memorable when experienced with other senses than sight.”

Thank you Kerry for sharing your experience with us.

please visit her other #BeReal posts

Here And Here

Kerry is a writer and blogger. She was born visually impaired. She writes to make sense of the world around her.

TODAY WE VOTE

There has been a lot of anxiety leading up to today. I hope that at the very least you VOTE.

There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.

Alfred Hitchcock

My boyfriend checked in on me. He’s really good at that. He asked if I was nervous. I am but also… I did my part. The anticipation is there though.

I’m old enough now to know we will figure it out… all of it… as it comes. Each of us. Remember your decisions and your choices don’t end with the vote. We will always be striving for something and I know my efforts will be for more peace and care.

HASTYWORDSART

Unrest

Steps heavy with

Steel toed boots

Torches

Replace keystrokes

Wooden stakes

Are being carved

Into words

Skewering wisdom

Turning logic

Into a slow

Trickling stream

Of overdosed panic

Of invisible blood

Flowing sticky

And thick

Poisoning the mud

We wash all

Our sins into