MS Awareness week 2014

Apparently it's MS week here in the UK.

As many of my regular readers know, I have Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. You wouldn't necessarily know to look at me (unless I have a bad spasm or walk into a wall) as it's an invisible disease.

Symptoms I have include doublevision, fatigue, short term memory loss, bladder problems, pain, muscle spasms, vertigo and things that can loosely be termed as "weird shit" to name but a few. I work reduced hours so I can retain work-life balance and I inject myself with some pretty serious drugs three times a week, but I do try and keep myself as medication-free as possible to counteract the inevitable side-effects.

When I publish my e-chapbooks, you can download them for free, but I do give you the option to donate money to the MS Society in the UK.

I have written a haiku sequence: 'Limboland' inspired by my diagnosis in 2008. It was first published on the MS Society website and later in Lynx. I have a copy to download from my Issuu account.

I have also written one of my few long poems "Tulips and Roses" (which is cockney rhyming slang for MS).

I also keep a largely upbeat blog about MS: Dave's Magical Brain. I recommend you seek out my MS History posts to give you an idea of what it's like to be diagnosed with a chronic illness.

Anyway, that's all. As there are only 100,000 MSers in the UK, research into our disease doesn't get the government funding that other more high profile diseases do. At the moment, we don't know what causes MS and we don't have a cure. High profile MSers include Jack Osbourne, Montel Williams, Richard Pryor and a personal hero: Don van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart.

Thanks for your time.

So long Blighty!

I'm away to the USA for a fortnight.

I'll be checking into my usual social media channels while I'm away, but I'm using the trip to trial Instagram. If you're on Instagram, by all means follow me. One of the blessings of my name is that I'm easily searchable.

school trip
to the zoo -
mating season

the company of widowers allotment bench

elevator
an ex's scent
hanging

gardening done
a blackbird sets to work
around the beds

wiping
the slug
    ...the slug
from my finger
    ...from my
               finger

sun blue skied
the drops
on the window

Martin Lucas missing

Martin Lucas, the founder and editor of Presence has been missing from his home in Preston since Friday. If you live in the area, or know someone who does, please see the Lancashire police appeal for information.

snaking through the shingle
a rusty chain leads
nowhere



[good potential for a concrete poem, I guess]

telling her about
dinosaurs
her face as she yawns

NaHaiWriMo posts - 2014

Well that's it for NaHaiWriMo 2014. I hope you liked my poems and commentary. Here's a list of the prompts in case you want to see any again.

My personal favourites are 'black,' 'box - part two' and 'beehive'

1. banjo
2. brother
3. band aid
4. black
5. bump
6. battery
7. box and
   box part two
8. bounce
9. belief
10. bean
11. biscuit
12. break and
    break part two
13. book
14. betrayal
15. busker
16. bicycle
17. bagel
18. burrito
19. baby
20. bling
21. brussels sprouts
22. barn
23. beehive
24. boat
25. braid
26. brew
27. button
28. bridge

NaHaiWriMo prompt: bridge

humpback bridge
I leave their stomachs
where Dad left mine


Well that's the last prompt of the month and one that I struggled with initially. Luckily my kids are mild thrill-seekers.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: button

bright eyes
sewing buttons to her jumper
the new grandma


I don't know if "jumper" translates into American English. If not, it means "sweater."

This one's for my Mum, no longer with us, who did this for my brother's twins when they were babies.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: brew

tea bags
the compost
brewing


Hmmm, not happy with this, to be honest, but was the best of a bad bunch.

NaHaiWriMo prompt: braid

park smells
the dog-minder's leads
criss-crossing

NaHaiWriMo prompt: boat

underfoot
the shifting shingle
tankers anchored to the horizon

shoreline smokehouses
we read the names
of the beached fleet

today's catch
chalked on the board
the boat that caught it

through the boat's windows
the rising sun
rust on the winch

I recently spent a long weekend on the coast at Aldeburgh in Suffolk, UK. See my pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pnoom/sets/72157636326517256/

recent notes NOT a sequence

passing showers
the sun really knows
how to come out

electronica
in the middle a "hey!"
spelt with a j

finally a goal
as spectacular
as his misses

shifting light
the cloudy
not-cloudy sky

NaHaiWriMo prompt: beehive

home sweet home
in the brick pile
bees


A few years ago, we had an extension built on the back of our house. At the front we had a large pile of bricks and granite cobble stones dumped. They stayed there for a long time while we found a buyer for the granite.

I that time a few bees started turning up in our front room, which was a mystery as we hardly ever opened the window in there.

While investigating the air bricks in the wall, I discovered a bees nest in the pile. It seemed ironic that our discarded building materials made the perfect home for them.

Anthologies

I have a haiku in each of the following anthologies, both available now to buy online:

• The Scent of Music (Ed. Marlène Buitelaar) ('t Schrijverke) 
• Red Mood Anthology 2013 - Fear of Dancing (Ed. Jim Kacian) (Red Moon Press) 

Funny that one has music in the title and the other dancing.