Blog Manifesto

Blog Manifesto


This blog is dedicated, as the title would suggest, to the qualities of being young. We are young writers. We are playful and sensitive, fluid and changing. We are unashamed with our art. We wonder at the world, puzzle over the meanings of things and twirl in delight at images and ideas that float by, grabbing at them as they pass. We are curious and constantly inquiring and prying concepts open and taking assumptions apart. We are on the ground, close to the earth. We have bare feet and wiggle our toes into nature. We carry our blankies still and wrap up cozy and comfy with each other and tell ghost stories and shiver at creepy things. We laugh and we cry and we take a lot of naps, drained from our outings and exertions.

We write as gifts to each other, tying them up in ribbon and leaving them around for each other to find, hiding and waiting for the person to wake up and read. Surprise! We weave our stories together to create a bond. One writes, then the other. then another again. We have a shared reality that we have crafted, bit by piece by patch, by string. We write simple, honest authentic things, with our unique voices. You can tell each one of us from the other, without knowing who wrote what. Our voices are clear and gentle and original. We whisper and our personalities roar! Like children, our feelings are strong, our passion for what we write shakes us. We are moved and sometimes left breathless, by our own words or the words of each other. We cannonball into each others spaces. We fall backward into each others writing, like into a pile of leaves or a soft bed. We gobble and grin and ask for more. (footnote kudos to JC)

Then we go to bed, wake up to a new day and do it all over again!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Withdrawal Redux

Get the troops out!
Soon...you came too soon!
Like the acupuncture needles leaving my skin
the fuzziness leaving my brain
you are gone but the pain lingers

Comrades in arms!
you trained and me fumbling
here or there, the gap widens
Can you stay? Can you be with me?
Is the battle done?

We're dying now!
Dead really,  the hallowed bed
a testament to the war we fought
and lost ...there are no winners
here we loved and lost

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4 comments:

  1. SharonMarch 14, 2012 at 10:38 AM

    In the Northwest I live close to the training facility for a lot of the soldiers serving now in Afganistan. One of them went berserk and killed a group of civilians. Thinking of his problems, family, situation, my own came to mind.
    My husband was Vietnam era. He came home broken in ways that he showed to no one. Step by step, he ended his pain; with pills, drink, and a jump. But, like the wars, the residual pain lingers here for the rest of us.
    I am not a liberal. I'm not rallying to leave our overseas commitments. Simply, my experience tells me berserk actions have many causes and our soldiers are trained in ways we are not. It is hard for humans to survive. My husband and I did not live on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RosieMarch 15, 2012 at 9:12 AM

      We lost a few friends to Vietnam, a few that died and some that came back but didn't come back. Not really.

      Our soldiers need aftercare, they didn't get it then, and they aren't really getting it now.

      It makes me a little bit crazy when I think about it.

      Delete
  2. JCMarch 15, 2012 at 12:33 PM

    my dad is a Vietnam vet. drafted. was not a topic we spoke of in our home. years later he talks about it very little. makes my hair stand on end.

    there are letters to my grandmother floating around somewhere...
    she had beautiful auburn hair when he left..
    white when he returned.

    there are too many victims of war.

    ReplyDelete
  3. reeseMarch 15, 2012 at 7:21 PM

    My husband and brother are also Vietnam vets. My brother had a soldier friend die just feet away from him. My husband has a Purple Heart. He was wounded and I thank God for sparing his life.

    ReplyDelete

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