I receive a daily poem by email from The Writer's ALmanac and this one intrigued me....
Poem: "Words That Make My Stomach Plummet" by Mira McEwan, from Ecstatic. © Allbook Books, 2007. Reprinted with permission.
Words That Make My Stomach Plummet
Committee Meeting. Burden of Proof.
The Simple Truth. Trying To Be Nice.
Honestly. I Could Have Died. I Almost Cried.
It's Only a Cold Sore.
It's My Night. Trust Me. Dead Serious.
I Have Everything All Under Control.
I'm Famous For My Honesty.
I'm Simply Beside Myself. We're On The Same Page.
Let's Not Reinvent The Wheel.
For The Time Being. There Is That.
I'm Not Just Saying That.
I Just Couldn't Help Myself. I Mean It.
So that is Mira McEwen's poem....I invite you to write your own....what words make your stomach plummet???
Friday, May 2, 2008
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12 comments:
My words:
Can I talk to you for a minute?
Your mom's on the phone.
Your sister's on the phone.
Don't be mad at what I'm getting ready to tell you...
I don't want to hurt your feelings, but...
Hmmm, im late and ....just off the top of my head:
I really want to but...
She's so nice
I'll have to pray about it.
I don't want to put words in your mouth but...
Is she/he a Christian?
I hear what you are saying.
Not really.
I just don't have the time.
Make sure it's perfect.
Color inside the lines.
Whatever.
I guess.
What do you mean?
That is so stupid.
Think!
Life sucks!
This is not good enough.
Get to the point.
Do it for me.
Blah words to not live by, in my humble opinion....
If only you would...
Don't say "NO" until you've heard this...
Your trouble is...
OH, well...
I feel your pain.
you're fired.
past-due
it's not you, it's me.
when I was your age....
you know, if I were you....
Ya know what your problem is?
debt
selfishness
If I have to hear "these fine men" from the rector one more time, I'll puke. It isn't that most of them aren't fine men, but when someone clearly is not fit for the priesthood and whines in class and the vocation seems to be an uncle's instead of his own, I just don't want to hear it.
I did not get to respond to your poem and took the time to go back and look at it…it fits so well into my job, as there are many things that make my stomach plummet in my line of work! “I have cancer, my cancer has come back, I have bone mets or I am terminal” those are the words that make me cringe and send my stomach plummeting; I try so hard to take those words and turn them around to be something positive. Sounds pathetically sickening…but it is the truth! If I didn’t my job would eat me up and spit me out! I try and frequently ask God to give me the right words to take a patient from their terminal diagnosis to living each day as it was intended in hopes of finding peace and beauty in their impending death.
Linda J. Klinefelter, MS
Patient Navigator
Olympic Medical Cancer Center
I like Mary D.'s, but also, still: due tomorrow.
this is a great poem!
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