Poetry Corner

How I Cope

Good evening everybody

Good evening everyone 

This evening has some serious aims

But also should be fun.

If somebody had told me say 12 years ago

I’d spend a “fun” Friday night on Parkinson’s then no

NO NO NO NO NO 

Would have been my reply

because I’d just been diagnosed 

and thought that I would die.

I felt my life was over.

A fast approaching end

It wasn’t just my family

but also with my friends 

With jobs, careers

it fed my fears

and drove me round the bend.

[PAUSE]

I figured then my life would cease

At merely 48 

but here I am at 60

with a smile upon my face.

What happened in the interim

What happened in that while.

Why is it that then I cried

And now instead I smile?

The first thing is the simple fact

That 12 years have elapsed

Time heals is what they say

And maybe I’ve relaxed

into understanding

quite who I might be

It’s debilitating but 

I  am still, er...me.

The second thing is DBS

Boy did that change stuff

The pain I had was ghastly

The tremors really tough

But post huge operation both of them receded

It doesn’t work for everyone

but for me wow it succeeded

The third point is a simple one 

But it keeps me alive

It concerns the lot of you

You are now my tribe.

Everybody needs some friends who really comprehend

And hopefully we find them at the start and not the end

The support we give each other is miraculous in scope

No wonder that I’m smiling. No wonder I have hope

Family is really key and here I have lucked out

My husband is a wonder. Great! he hasn’t chucked me out

He’s patient and he’s kind and look away now Mike

But he makes each day exciting and he fills each day will light

And on the really grim days when light seems to have gone, he reignites the candle and he helps me soldier on.

My 3 kids  are also wonders and each of them does care

Together we’re a unit that is strong in all we share

The last point is internal - this must come from within.

Its somehow cutting through the noise, slashing through the din

I have a found that writing helps me have my say

I was silent in the past but silent now? No way.

The drugs that we are given have bad side effects

But there are a couple that are great – far better than sex addiction or buying excess shoes. 

Mind you it  is not a list 

from which you pick and choose.

A boost in creativity can be a side effect

I was very lucky. It was what I would elect

And so I write my doggerel pastiches and I paint

It’s absorbing therapeutic but Da Vinci? No it ain’t

So what is my conclusion on ling with pd?

I cannot say I welcome it but as it has to be

I look at how my friends all cope- you’re such an inspiration

Together we all constitute a  Parkie generation

And though it is a club to which we don’t want to belong

the attitudes are changing. We’ve been silent for too long.

PD is Cinderella who’s not thought of at all. But don’t forget that she’s the one who triumphed at the ball.

She’s the one who found the prince and the perfect shoe         

We all need sparkling  slippers and who knows a prince or two

I am not Pollyanna, nor a Californian freak

I just cannot be positive 

each hour, each day, each week,

But as we have dual forces which upon us pull

Please reject half empty. Let’s all embrace half full!

By Gillian Lacey-Solymar