Adrenaline

Cracks the stem,

removes breath

in waves of red,

nerves unpinch.

The cherry breaks

concrete thought,

loosens the band,

releases grip.

And so I attempt poetry again (don't laugh). As the tendon in my hand and wrist slowly heals (yes, it's a long, long journey), I've been going to great lengths to assist the natural process that will restore strength, and I wanted to share what's been working for me. Adrenaline, when focused properly helps, as does diet and meditation.

The first thing I've been doing is focusing my breath. One exercise I've found especially useful is the sixty second breath in which I sit comfortably and inhale slowly for twenty seconds, hold for twenty seconds, then exhale for twenty seconds. This exercise is a meditation in of itself.

I have also been  taking a variety of herbal and vitamin supplements that are said to help strengthen the tendons or reduce inflamation:

Tumeric

Cardamom

Glucosomine and Chondroitin

Vitamin B Complex

More: I've eliminated artifical sweeteners from my diet which is harder than it sounds because food manufacturing companies sneak Splenda and the like into a lot of products so that they can market processed foods as "healthy alternatives". Anyway, the point of this is that I've gone to great lengths to modify diet, along with a regimen of stretching, hand exercises, and ice/heat treatments. And, I've read that artificial sweeteners can actually build up in the joints. I don't want to take any chances.

I'm not sure which or if it all has helped, but, for what it's worth, the combination has done the trick. I'm on the mend. In fact, I'll be writing like a mad woman again soon. One thing I've learned about pain, in the meantime, is that it can be trumped. I've learned to see pain as a sort of blockage that can be loosened with perseverence and, more, patience. 

Responding to Art: Language and Place on the Edge



Image by Mark R. Knox, KnoxworX Multimedia

I looked to her for definition. The artificial. The perfect. She redefined delicacy when she found her place in nature, in images around my home. She held my own rough image, magnified, enlivened, so that I only wanted to close my eyes in front of the mirror, hoping for smoother lines. Fragile, younger then, I looked to her, to art, to the place of light. I look still. And sometimes the light peeks out, around the trees, above the moist and fragrant ground. It begs reflection, tells me to seek other forms of beauty. Look to the whole, it says, redefine.

This image is one of my father's "Mannequin Series". Each piece within the series stars the same mannequin--sometimes pieces of her. She is often photographed in natural scenes or against gritty backgrounds. She creates smooth, gentle lines, always in contrast to the enviornment. In this piece, I like the juxtaposition between the artificial perfection of her hands as they hold up a fragile, mirrored orb and the dark, textural beauty of the forest. I wrote this to examine the juxtaposition as well as my own definition of beauty in art.


More about Language and Place on the Edge here: http://michelleelvy.wordpress.com/