Hello from the other side of general anaesthesia, transfer and reconstruction of three tendons, and a nifty side of Sauvé-Kapandji. All in 2 hours. Less time than it took me to binge watch the entire season of Baby Reindeer on my first night out of hospital.
I'm a fortnight into my 6 to 8 week post-op recovery. I've gone from cast to splint and had sutures removed.
All is going well.
Since my return home from an opiate-hazed 2-night stay, I've received so many gifts from my friends and community in meals, visits, flowers, messages and dog walks. I've also given myself the gift of many acts of surrender.
By ‘surrender’ I mean the relinquishing of control and a yielding to something other than well worn paths, roles and patterns. These acts of surrender have been precipitated either directly by my current disability or indirectly from months of reflection and processing leading up to surgery.
I wanted to write a list poem on surrender in the style of Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” but for now, I've settled on dot points as prompts for future stanzas.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Surrender (after Wallace Stevens)
I
Abandoning productivity
II
Coming out (I'm queer)
III
Microwaving meals
IV
Playing long games of monopoly
V
Slowing down
VI
Seeking help
VII
Allowing our dog to sleep uncrated
VIII
Running errands with a shopping cart
IX
Inviting people into messy parts of my home
X
Expressing my emotional range
XI
Trusting my boy with greater responsibilities (detangling his own hair!)
XII
Recognising I'll need time to heal
XIII
Using what I have at hand
Bylines
In exciting news, I’ve had a byline in two consecutive editions of The Big Issue, making it a trifecta since March!
In the latest, issue 710, with Chloé Hayden on the cover (out till 10 May), I review Siang Lu's second novel, Ghost Cities (2024).
Purchase a copy from your local vendor or take out a subscription to get it delivered to your door.
And in issue 709, I interviewed Jami Nakamura Lin, author of The Night Parade: A Speculative Memoir (2024).
Comic workshops
My next comic workshop will be in June.
Make time for creativity, flow and a spot of winter sunshine streaming in through the large windows of the beautiful launderette.
Sunday 23 June 2024, 10:30 am, Sac’O’Suds Launderette, Castlemaine
I hope to see you there!
Raptorial Writes
A monthly writing prompt
Set a timer for 10 minutes. Select a subject (it could be an animal, object, emotion, habit, action) and write at least 13 different ways of perceiving it. Do not over think it.
Then, read this month's Raptorial Bites and craft your dot points into a poem after Wallace Stevens (an after-poem is, ideally, a response to or ‘conversation’ with the original). Take all the time you need.
I’d love to know how you go! Post your poem to Instagram using #RaptorialWrites, or share it in the comments here. Happy writing!
Raptorial Bites
A monthly short story book club
This month’s read is Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” from his first book of poetry, Harmonium (1923). The poem is available on the Poetry Foundation website.