The Hawk Outpost 1:50pm
With The Sublimity of The Morning
with Me making coffee for three
with Eliza baking blueberry muffins
I thought to write of a garden
I was taken to see
by an Acadian Nurse named Emily
Who thought I’d like to walk
across the hospital parking lot
across a curving back street
to a stranger’s yard grown up
with flowers I don’t remember —
but I remember The Walk
& found It, or One like It, noted
in My decades-old medical records:
“Patient enjoyed Her Walk.”
The Hawk Queen Bed 11:04pm
What Does It Mean
To Be Human?
To Top The Chart
One Bell Curve
Of Human Behavioural Spectrum —
To Sit Up There
Like A Star
Growing Into The Nebula
Reaching Out
To Very Vast Edges?
The Hawk Living Room 5:41pm
I have The Power
of Destiny
behind Me
–
The Strength
of Our Future
in My Present
–
I will succeed in creating
My Own Reality
as I see It every minute
every second
measured by moments
alone or with Others
Who may yet see
where I am
coming from
The Tomato-coloured Couch 2:22pm
She sits in black leggings
left foot tucked under
right thigh
couched on The Tomato-coloured Couch
Where Else?
under Her Depiction
of The Glory & The Fall
titled “My Black Star”
She wears Her Most Expensive Earrings
& socks with cats
given to Her by a coffee-drinking friend
She has come many miles
& many moons
to achieve Her Place
here
& plans to stay
as long as it takes
to answer Humanity’s Fatalistic Questions
There is no such “thing” as “mental illness.” There is no true illness which can be said to be entirely “mental” unless it is derived from an organic source such as a brain tumour. There are no physical attributes in the human body which can point to this description. There is no pre-determining test for “mental illness.” The psychiatric diagnosis used to determine the supposed state of “mental illness” is opinion-based at best, and most often this opinion is not shared by the individual in question. At worst this opinion is often shared by family members, friends, and society as a whole, creating a kind of trap or “Catch 22” for the individual.
–
What we see when we attempt to use this stigmatizing and false description of “mental illness” is an array of human self expression which may be affected by, or resulting from, changes in environment, sleep patterns, physical activity, thought, perception, interaction with others, or any conglomeration of naturally occurring factors which can and do affect all of us as human beings.
–
We are variable and complex. To lump any of us into “categories” of “mental illness” is a grave disservice to humanity.
Written by Joanna Gilman Hyde Blair
The Hawk Portico 1:50pm
Twenty years or so ago
I asked My Carpenter Husband
to build Me A Church —
“It would be a folly,” was His Answer —
Well I have My Church:
I have My Body, My Temple
I have My House By The Sea
I have My Small Town Nova Scotia
I have My Country Canada
& So I Have My World
The Hawk Outpost 10:25am
The Birds on the wire
know not
the chaos to come
in human terms
Let Nature be spelled
& All Birds
sanctified
The Hawk Outpost 10:15am
I have risen to The Gleam Of Silver
aeons in the making
having set Its High
& clung to It
I will witness The World’s
turn-around
from the light of gold
to The Shower Of Silver —
from the day of the yellow metal
to The Night of The White
The Tomato-coloured Couch NOON
Gold is too warm
Silver is tarnished
like The Humanity
it represents
The Cold Truth
of believing in Our Selves
Our Bodies
Our Aspirations
–
*Ian Curtis, Joy Division
When I first posted Halloween
all three related listings in the comment section
When I looked again
three different poems were listed.
Joanna Gilman Hyde 