Cancer Chronicles 13Nov2017

I would like to thank the people that came to my workshop.  Especially Cindi and Eric.  It was great discussing how to write about very personal stories and the state of the healthcare system.  It was really nice to discover commonalities in the three of us.

I am looking forward to our writing session next month on 10Dec2017.

My workshop coincided with the book launch of the Cartless Anthology.  Which is a project sponsored by the Inlandia Institute and Path of Life Ministries to preserve the creative writing of homeless people living in Riverside.  I was glad to be able to discuss the details of the project with Lydia Theon Ware I, the instructor and editor.  Next year, Islands plans to partner with the project to provide the layout and design of the anthology.

Cancer Poetry 2015

30March2015

Mammogram

Open paper gown

Ice cold clamps clench soft breast

Quiet prayers

Nan, CelenaDiana, Ginger

www.mevoj.blogspot.com

Spring2014 Comics

28Mar2014, 1003pm

Winding down for the evening.  Reading from "A Taste of Tomorrow:  A Dystopian Box Set:  11 Book Collection".  Reading Mom passages from one of the eBook adventures in the set.

Healthy Meals Spring2014

28Mar2014, 812pm

Mom surprised me with a late night snack of fresh steamed oysters.

28Mar2014, 155pm

Taking a quick lunch break, while I remember to eat.

Homemade Beef StirFry, with Carrots, Broccoli, Red Bell Pepper, Green Beans and Snap Peas over Brown Basmati Rice with Barley with a side of Gruyere cheese.  Served with iced Green Tea.

My workbook designs are coming along smoothly.

Listening to Mumford & Sons Station on Pandora.

Holiday Deals 2013

17Dec2013

One of my students was so awesome sharing this deal with me.

How cool is it to get such a great deal on a sandwich during the holidays?

Nutritious food and affordable to boot?  Who could ask for more?

NaPoWriMo Day 28

Day 28

Today's poetic offering for National Poetry Writing Month is a description of stuffiness you cannot escape when it is within you.

COTTONHEAD BLUES

I've been off the grid for days
The passage of time I record
only as a habit too long and too deeply entrenched
My head is filled with downy white wadding
My mind refuses to focus
My mouth, dry as cotton balls
My thirst unquenchable
My ears are stuffed with soft white fluff
muffling the conversations of today
into muted, pretty background noise
My parched skin screams "Yield"
as I wander the house in a strange fugue
of distant awareness and detached interest

Copyright Celena Diana Bumpus


Cottonhead Blues by Celena Diana Bumpus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://perceiveideas.blogspot.com/2013/05/napowrimo-day-28.html.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://perceiveideas.blogspot.com.

NaPoWriMo Day 7

Day 7

Today's offering to the poetry gods for National Poetry Writing Month is reminiscent of the days when I was going through chemotherapy and the feeling of slipping away one experiences when they feel they are near death.

SUN AND SALT

When I was dying,
or knew I was dying,
I fell in love with the idea of dying.
Part of me was so relieved it would be over soon,
I rejoiced inside.
Almost ecstatic with the piece by piece feeling of loss.
Part of it was the pain meds.
So strong, half the time
I wasn't certain I wasn't already dead.
But, I would see a glimpse of sunlight
through my hospital bedroom window
(in the ER for cancer patients)
and I would imagine the cool
Orange county ocean breeze.
Not quite close enough to the ocean
to see too many seagulls outside.
But close enough to get just a hint
of the brine in the healing air.
Like a taste on your tongue,
you're on quite tasting.
Or maybe it was just the saline drip.
I don't know.
I just knew the sunlight
and the imagined small of the sea
would bring me back
to the living world.
And selfishly I knew I wouldn't have either
if I kept going down that other path.

Copyright Celena Diana Bumpus

Sun and Salt by Celena Diana Bumpus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://perceiveideas.blogspot.com/2013/05/napowrimo-day-7.html.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://perceiveideas.blogspot.com.