Parkinson's Disease In Haikus
"I'm Petrushka's doll. My face a mask,
my gait, a shuffling ape's, my posture bent.
My clumsy hands ignore the brain's intent.
The pilot seat is vacant in my brains.
I barely live, in chains."
Marj Koshky (1923-2001) Australian poet who suffered from
Parkinson's Disease.(Here are 7 haikus, each preceded by
a short desciption of a characteristic feature of Parkinson's
Disease.)
1.Facies:Fixity of facial expression, somewhat
staring, immobile.
hieroglyph of wrinkles
face of a sphinx full of dark
pyramid secrets
2.Tremors: Rhythmic tremors most pronounced
in the hands, frequency of 4-5 per second.
tremors of fingers
the sleight of hand faster
than slide of mind
3.Freezing Phenomenon: Feet transiently glued to
the ground.
once a flitting bee
now a dinosaur stuck deep
in a mangrove swamp
4. Bradykinesia: Slowness of movements.
not a leap, each step
a moon walk, never reaching
the heart's space station
5.Festinating Gait: Quick shuffles at an accelerating pace
as if to catch up with the body's center of gravity.
chasing own shadow
it's caught when moon eclipses
the sum of his fears
6.Rigidity: Stiffness of musculature.
when rigid limbs move
rusty cogwheels are singing
mechanical songs
7.Dementia: Dementia afflicts up to 1/4 of all
patients with Parkinson's Disease.
the pool beneath chair
not sign of second childhood
reeks of more than age
(Painting:Wax and water colour on paper,
digital collage,entitled "Flying In Paradise"
August, 2006.)
40 comments:
This is for Queen and Aurora...took a little longer than I expected, the trouble with haikus is that when you go back, you are compelled to revise and sometimes your revised version may not be as good as the original. I always aim for the third line to be the "sudden,explosive revelation...the Aha ...that comes like a blinding flash of light". I hope I have got this in these 7 haikus, happy blogging and writing!
kianseng
Thank you for posting these! The treatment of such a topic in this form is quite compelling.
I always find it interesting - and necessary - that illness be addressed in poetry. Perhaps that is one of the reasons I love Jane Kenyon's poetry so much.
Your artwork depicts the constant battle of PD.
Your poetic selections are so poignant I'm too choked up with tears to comment coherently. A dear friend of mine suffers from early onset PD. Thank you for this post. HOpe you visit my site again soon. I did link you as requested. :)
the artwork on here is stunning! is this your work plus ultra?
Plus Ultra...these are simply wonderful. Loved them. My the picture they paint. It's wonderful that you are a doctor with a huge heart. That in itself can heal. Thank you for what you do!
That was really quick response..thanks Aurora, Queen, Jon, Silvermoon, Burning moon, Don.Yes all postings here are my own, the art work is basically in the style of Batik but instead of cloth I use paper, water colour, and then a little magic in the pc!
I'm really glad I found your blog; I love the haikus, the way you find beauty in those clinical descriptions. I've always thought there was an odd beauty in medicalese.
Lovely artwork, too. I'll definitely be back!
Great job!
Dear Dr Ultra, Its amazing and too good.My husband will be training in Old Age Psychiatry next six months, I will show him the poem specially the dementia part.
Thank you for this insight.
What a word picture. Clinical, detached, precise. Painted against the background of the frightening force of total annihilation.
In the context of a civilization walking towards its inexorable end, the seven haikus of the series read almost as a map…
Plus, these are truly amazing!! A William Carlos Williams in the making!!
Totally amazing!
You are amazing!
Thank you for being you!
Illuminating series of haikus. Parkinson's disease is something that has always scared me when I see the victims it claims, esp the uncontrolled tremors. Thanks so much for this educational poems :)
Oh Plus Ultra, I left a comment yesterday, don't know where has it disappeared.Blogspot is acting a bit strange these days!!!
I really loved the haikus
This is very creative and very sad. I have a friend with PD who writes the most luminous poetry despite the debilitation. These made me think of him.
these are so poignant. wonderful work!
ps
i linked you on my ladybird haiku/haiga blog (http://polonahaiku.blogspot.com/)
hope that's ok.
Beautiful work. Poignant!
the pattern underlying this picture looks like a Maori design whilst the flower looks like a kowhai. This looks very much like artwork I would have found here in New Zealand. That's what caught my eye when I first came here to your website.
moon
Sorry, Polona, I did not know about your haiku blogs, I will reciprocate.
Christine,are you of Singapore origin...I remember a Christine LIm who writes, not Catherine Lim..
Thanks Dustin DDD Medusa margie...
Pat you are too kind!
Thanks Borut and hello Peter. Ah Andrew so nice of you to drop by.
And glad to fellowship with you Twitches, I like your blog.
Hi Medusa, You went back a long way to read my Ghazals and I thought nobody would read it...that's really kind of you to read my April posting. Got a job already? Or you could be the resident poet of Klinik Malaysia (thats the name of my practice!)Really happy to hear from you two days in a row...
Ah plus ultra, the denegration of the body in disease or just tired genes is an arrow of time that strikes all hearts. Thanks for the treatment to soften the process. You are a kind and understanding doctor!
This is excellent. I like how you interlude each medical point with poetic imagery like that.
I thought this was just brilliant. Brilliant.
I loved that you extracted this aesthetic from medical science.
And somehow, despite the tragic attributes of this dengenerative disease, your words offer a peace and acceptance. And beauty--even as we deteriorate.
Surely this is a balm.
(I'm so glad that you found me; and now I have found you).
Poignant, Kienseng. Sad and poetic at the same time.
For those of you,
(especially, from the other sides
of the earth)
just to let you know,
Besides being a writer of poetry
and short stories,
Plus Ultra is also ...
Always - on time at his clinic.
More - than a doctor when the
need arises.
Beyond - your expectation at times.
Dear Kian Seng,
But your poems are a pleasure to read!!! And not many write the ghazal with so much sensitivity or are aware of this form, I'm just so glad to find someone else besides me who is able to appreciate it :)
Also thanks for the offer, you're so sweet but Klinik Malaysia is sooooooo faaaaaaar awayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!
astonishing
thought-provoking
and a delicate beauty
found within a tragedy
thank you
hi Plus!
you are a rare talent, yes! a doctor, an artist, a poet. how many people can be all these?
this post about PD is so educational, and the haikus are excellent.
Wow, CTY, you are so kind, the more I relate to you the more I grow to like you as a sensitive, caring person...a joy always to minister to you, medically, looking forward to more interaction with you.
Medusa, Thanks...I went to poetry Play, my you are half my age but twice the poet!
Floots, that was yet again another beauty, taking the common and mundane and making art out of it,brilliant.
Plus Ultra - Uncommon compassion.
Thank you for sharing and enlightening. Your words bring graphic clarity to what otherwise we may shy away from, humanizing (the experience) of the illness.
I have come by a few times these past couple of weeks.
(I always feel like an “intruder” when during my first attempt to make contact by leaving a comment… which ultimately is better than “just lurking around”)
Joy to you
-.a.-
Thank you for your visit a comments.
If I may be so bold, as I don't know ... please explain the "significance" (symbolism?) of you "being behind bars".
Thank you in advance.
Joy to yo
-.a.-
Thanks, Angeldust,you are multi-talented...I think ladies are more right brained than men, and there's no limit to their creativity, you are truly an example! Oh,yes,many have asked me why I am behind bars!This is actually one of the very very few pictures of myself I have and I am actually looking out of a window, and the caption should have been there and it should read, "Poetry, a window to the beyond, where there is always more"!Have a lovely week end, all of you! I am working on a poem about a patient in a psychiatric ward.......
Naomi, you left a comment, I published it but it never appeared, lost in cyberspace...
Thank you for your kind words.
I realized they were "window" bars as I have lived in SOuth America and were part of the "Spanish" tradition...
Have a great week end too.
Joy to you
-.a.-
Its my first time here, Plus, and I am glad that I came along, albeit a bit late. I was going through ur poems and those awesome paintings, and especially loved ur Haikus, as well as 'Whispers of Silence'.
Its wonderful when one has a fine flair of writing, and has the immense ability to match it up with brush strokes across the canvas.
I shall surely drop in again.
:)
PS Yes, fell free to link.
I'll do the same as soon as I figure out the technicalities... (that side of the brain is very "underused")
You have shown that no matter the journey life may take, there is poetry. Even when the hearts of humankind abandon that which is broken, there remains the most intricate beauty in life, no matter the inabilities that change brings about.
Fantastic. Very poignant, intelligent and moving Good work.
These are all wonderful, saddly accurate, aren't they. I have known a couple people in my life who have had parkinson's, it was referred to as "the tremors" for obvious reasons....back before people would give it a name. So many diseases that we get that rob us of our gracefull and happy older years.
Cool post you got here. It would be great to read something more about this theme. Thank you for sharing this material.
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