I feel so vindicated after reading this article that I have to post it here verbatim. I started taking hormone replacement therapy in the mid 1990s while I was in my mid fifties, and I refused to go off of them as many of my friends did when the 2002 Women's Health Initiative final report came out. I cited my gorgeous and youthful aunt who then in her seventies said she still took hormones and had no intension of stopping. Fortunately I had a doctor who agreed with me. From the literature she read she felt there were some of the flaws in the findings of the WHI - especially the composition of the sample of women tested for its study. So here I am age seventy-eight, still taking hormones and feeling and looking more youthful than my age suggests. I had a checkup yesterday with my gynecologist who said all was perfect - especially my blood pressure - 112 over 61 (and I do not take any blood pressure medication and never have). She was happy to renew my hormone replacement therapy … [Read more...]
Poems for the new year 2019
I have Michael Schaub of the Los Angeles Times to thank for this New Year's Day post. He's picked some wonderful words to greet the new year from five favorite poets. I'm especially taken by his choosing the words of Naomi Shihab Nye and Dorianne Laux. I've worked with both of them in poetry workshops and consider them my mentors. Five hopeful poems to usher in the new year By MICHAEL SCHAUB DEC 31, 2018 | 11:50 AM Filipino revelers watch as fireworks light up the sky to welcome the new year at the seaside Mall of Asia in suburban Pasay city south of Manila in 2017. (Bullit Marquez / Associated Press) Even if you're one of the nine or so people in the world who actually understand what "Auld Lang Syne" means, you have to admit that Robert Burns' traditional New Year's poem is getting a little old. Luckily, there are other poems you can use to pay tribute to the year that's gone by and celebrate the potential of the one to … [Read more...]
Yes, you can write political poetry
Two op eds - one in the New York Times book review section and one in the Los Angeles Times editorial section - appeared yesterday. The gist in each is that we poets and other artists need to stop avoiding writing or producing other forms of art about politics. We must use our voices to provide the meaning for all that's happening in our world these days - as offensive as it might me. The last time I wrote a poem along these lines was after the buildings collapsed on September 11, 2001 - that is until I did the Robert Lee Brewer poem a day challenge this past November. I found myself writing one political poem after another. That became the most important subject for me in response to a lot of the prompts the Writer's Digest poetry editor put out, and now I feel validated. While Brewer kept admonishing us to "poem nicely," I even ignored this admonition. And I suspect I'll continue to do so. I've copied both articles verbatim here and hopefully acknowledged the authors and … [Read more...]
