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Matisse: Les Gourgues

Matisse: Les Gourgues

Daffodil Day

I am reminded this week that I have lived for thirteen years following a diagnosis of cancer in 2006. That is due to medical science and the fact that my sister Helen donated stem cells, which were used for the transplant that saved my life. So my gratitude and appreciation know no bounds. It has enabled me to see my grandchildren arrive and be a source of sheer bliss and delight and to be living in a soon to be more crowded multigenerational household. It has also got me to the point of a Masters in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. This is the icing on the cake.

Over the years, I have been aware of those around me who got cancer diagnoses. On my latest count, thirty-five people that I know have had a diagnosis and six have died. So my gang is running at an 83% survival rate, including me. That’s pretty good going, I think. It prompted the following, so read, enjoy, pass on and let me know what you think:

Another One

Text received:

DM had a malignant tumour

removed from her bile duct

starting chemo in March

The list of friends who join me

gets longer and fuller,

not too many drop off,

surviving is more the norm.

It does mean that we all have new

work to do – manage the damn thing –

support others who are, or are not,

 – campaign for care, because

the system is beyond bursting.

Twelve years on this road, we

stand, sit or crawl at 83 per cent

still standing but mangled.

Peter Clarke

February 2019

Comments

triona Mc morrow

20.03.2019 08:00

Great poem, full of energy and positivity. Well done Peter

Allegra

19.03.2019 23:21

As a fellow survivor.... Good words. Love you. XX

Mary Morrissey

18.03.2019 21:15

Thanks Peter. Really like it. I find it to be hopeful and uplifting.

Marguerite Colgan

18.03.2019 07:52

Well done, the poem is also well done! I like "surviving" last line 2nd verse, active as against "survival". Go Maire tu an chead.

Rosy Wilson

17.03.2019 22:30

Great blog and poem Peter. Your a hero your sister too. Good to see your survival stats. Anna and a family close friend and her daughter are swimming 4 kilometers each for cancer swimathon this month.

Clíodhna

17.03.2019 18:49

I echo Pearl - very glad you are still around! xxxx

Suzanne

17.03.2019 18:45

Well done I still remember the curly hair. 10 years now for me xxxx

Maurice C

17.03.2019 17:02

I share the experience, and the sentiments. Ultreia, my friend.

Pearl molloy

17.03.2019 16:42

So glad you are still around

Latest comments

25.11 | 22:15

Grief is experience through the mundane. Simple but powerful. The accompanying image really compliments the poem.

07.11 | 11:14

Hi Peter,

A great observation! Social media can be a scary place... I also need to reduce my time there

Hugs,

John.x

06.11 | 16:24

A great one, Peter, in the context you describe. I don't read social media myself, I doubt my equilibrium could stand it. 'The balance of his mind disturbed' yes, I think it would be.

06.11 | 15:59

Yes, gossip is a weapon of mass destruction.

In my business as well as personal life I have zero tolerance.

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