Believing in Christmas

If you were raised in the cultural tradition of believing in Santa Clause when did you find out he wasn't real? How did it affect you? What did you do? Who did you tell? The photo below and
he question were taken from the below link:

http://blogs.bodyandsoul.com.au/what-body-soul-thinks/article/is-santa-a-lie-or-lovely-tradition/"

This isn't a question related to greed, though surely over the years, Santa has been associated with greed. In fact, the Christmas season has often become more associated with greed than a time for love and giving. For Christians, it's a time to celebrate the birth of Christ.

For now, let's focus on the myth of Santa. When I was a child, Christmas meant getting one 'big' gift, such as a doll, and one usable gift, such as a pair of pajamas or some socks. In my younger years we usually went to my grandparents' house for Christmas. I don't know when it started occurring to me that no man, no matter how fast his reindeer were, couldn't make it to every home in the country in one long night. And what about the houses without chimneys? How did he get in there? One Christmas when I was around six or seven I'd asked for a Tony Doll. When my parents packed the car, one of the gifts on the backseat with me was a box just the size for a tony doll to fit.That gift appeared from 'Santa' under the tree he next morning. My Tony Doll. I didn't tell my parents I knew for a couple of more years. I didn't want to spoil the fun for them:-)

Merry Christmas. Share your experience. Again, please no diatribes on greed. I'm too aware of it. Let's talk about the magic for now. Greed another time. That subject could fill books. And yes, I'm aware of the true meaning of Christmas. This post isn't about that, either.

Believing in Santa Claus

If you were raised in the cultural tradition of believing in Santa Clause when did you find out he wasn't real? How did it affect you? What did you do? Who did you tell? The photo below and the question were taken from the below link:

http://blogs.bodyandsoul.com.au/what-body-soul-thinks/article/is-santa-a-lie-or-lovely-tradition/

This isn't a question related to greed, though surely over the years, Santa has been associated with greed. In fact, the Christmas season has often become more associated with green than a time for love and giving. For Christians, it's a time to celebrate the birth of Christ.

For now, let's focus on the myth of Santa. When I was a child, Christmas meant getting one 'big' gift, such as a doll, and one usable gift, such as a pair of pajamas or some socks. In my younger years we usually went to my grandparents' house for Christmas. I don't know when it started occurring to me that no man, no matter how fast his reindeer were, couldn't make it to every home in the country in one long night. And what about the houses without chimneys? How did he get in there? One Christmas when I was around six or seven I'd asked for a Tony Doll. When my parents packed the car, one of the gifts on the backseat with me was a box just the size for a tony doll to fit.

That gift appeared from 'Santa' under the tree the next morning. My Tony Doll. I didn't tell my parents I knew for a couple of more years. I didn't want to spoil the fun for them:-)

Merry Christmas. Share your experience. Again, please no diatribes on greed. I'm too aware of it. Let's talk about the magic for now. Greed another time. That subject could fill books. And yes, I'm aware of the true meaning of Christmas. This post isn't about that, either.

Sketchbook Journal is out!

I have some haiga in the latest issue. Go to http://poetrywriting.org/Sketchbook6-5SepOct2011/Sketchbook_6-5_SepOct_2011_Haiga_Pris_Campbell_00_Thumbnails.htm   
to see my page . Hit the H on top to go back to the homepage and read the rest of the journal, which also includes collaborations with Geoff Sanderson. Thank you, Sketchbook.

I'm still not much online. I'm finding that I don't have the energy to spread myself so thin if I want to use any of it to write poetry or create haiga.

Pris

Postscripts to the Dead is out!!!

My latest chapbook has been published as part of the MiPOesias Chapbook series. The book can be ordered at www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/284771. Free downloads are offered.

Read Grady Harp's review at Goodreads. His review includes three poems from the chapbook quoted in their entirety.

MagCloud is offering 25 percent off of all of their books until Oct 30. This book sells for 7.99 but until that date will sell for less than seven dollars, plus mailing.

I hope those of you who enjoy my poetry will buy or download the book. I'm excited about the chap.

Pris

Health Issues

Health issues have been a major problem for over a year now. I've finally accepted the fact that i can't keep up with a blog the way I did in the beginning but I do love the personal nature of a blog compared to the social networks. This means I'll be in and out as I can and I'll read other blogs as I can. Tis the best I can do.

S.A. Griffin's tribute to Scott Wannberg

Go to S.A.'s blog HERE to read a poem for Scott Wannberrg that will tear your heart apart. The poem is brilliant and moving. The link opens in a separate window.

Colorized Version of a bay in Hawaii where the locals went

 


No bars. No hula girls in fake paper skirts. Just the sea and thee. I loved it there. Since Hawaii's colors were so vivid, I couldn't resist making this brighter to pick up the real feel of the island.

Pris

Wow, what a fantastic site of linked haiga!

See Haiku Here blog. A real gem!

Older haiga published in Simply Haiku 2008

Click to enlarge and read the haiku. Photo take at Lake Worth Beach, FL

Stunning duet with Stevie Nicks and the finalist on Hulu

I see this video is no longer available as of my Oct 4 2011 check. If it comes back I'll repost it.



I took my love, and I took it down
I Climbed a mountain and I turned around
and I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
'Till the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life~~~
Mmmm mmm mmm

Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I'm getting older too

(Interlude)

Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
children get older
And I'm getting older too
I'm getting older too

So, take my love, take it down
ooh, if you Climb a mountain and you turn around
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide will bring it down

And If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well maybe the landslide will bring it down
Oh the landslide bring it down.

An older haiga with Mike Keville published in Sketchbook 2010

The June 2011 Dead Mule is out!

Four poems of mine can be found in The Dead Mule. Lots of good work in the issue, especially Michael Parker's chapbook.

For the Veterans

Wikimedia has given permission for free use of this photo. It's among the most moving of many I looked at in considering what to post in honor of Memorial Day.

Pris

Paul Newman Blues now availible

I have 25 personal copies of Paul Newman Blues,the mini chap published by Full of Crow, to sell. Cost is four dollars in the U.S. with one dollar postage and handling. To make it easier, I created my own paypal link for the book, but I accept checks, too. Contact me if you live outside of the U.S. First 25 sales will be it. As you'll see on the link, Full of Crow has been unable to update their chaps or sales online.

May 27 note: I've sold eight copies overnight and know several people who've told me they wanted a copy when it came out, so the numbers I have to sell are going down.

June 15 update I now have 6 copies available.

Go to THIS LINK to read about the book and find the paypal link.

Another poem in Rusty Truck

Doing Time

Enjoy, and leave a comment if so moved.

I'm still not on much. Now it's bronchitis. One day all this shall pass.

Pris

Mother's Day Video

I made this short video about my mother. She died in 1996 at the age of 89. RIP Mother. I love you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2M6KdwITFw

(there was no embed code to put the video in directly)

Making Love, a poem by Rebeccan McClanahan

Why make? I used to wonder.
Is it something you have to keep on
making, like beds or dinner, stir it up

or smooth it down? Sex, I understood,
an easy creaking on the upholstered
springs of a man you meet in passing.

You have sex, you don’t have to make it,
it makes you - rise and fall and rise again,
each time, each man, new. But love?

It could be the name of a faraway
city, end of a tired journey you take
with some husband, your bodies chugging

their way up the mountain, glimpsing
the city lights and thinking, If we can
keep it up, we’ll make Love by morning.

I guess it was fun for somebody,
my grandmother once said. By then
I was safely married and had earned

the right to ask, there in the kitchen
beside the nodding aunts. Her answer
made me sad. In her time, love meant making

babies, and if I had borne twelve
and buried three, I might see my husband
as a gun shooting off inside me, each bullet

another year gone. But sex wasn’t my question.
Love was the ghost whose shape kept
shifting. For us, it did not mean babies,

those plump incarnations the minister
had promised - flesh of our flesh,
our increase. Without them, and twenty years

gone, what have we to show
for the planing and hammering, bone
against bone, chisel and wedge,

the tedious sanding of night
into morning - when we rise, stretch,
shake out the years, lean back,

and see what we’ve made: no ghost,
it’s a house. Sunlight through the window
glazing our faces, patina of dust

on our arms. At every axis, mortise
and tenon couple and hold. Doors
swing heavy on their hinges.



I love her poetry!

The poem came from this link:
 http://poetry365.tumblr.com/post/66350099/making-love-rebecca-mcclanahan
Hit the back arrow to return to this blog.

Royal Wedding Attire:-)

Okay, the secret is out! Queen Elizabeth, hoping to train Prince William for stepping into her shoes one day, has INVITED PRIS' PINK HAT to be part of the wedding. Here, seen for the first time is the couple in their wedding attire!

Miami doc day

I see my ME/CFS doc today down at the U. Miami center that Dr Nancy Klimas runs. I'm crossing my fingers that one of the visits will bring a supplement or whatever I can tolerate that will increase my quality of life just that wee more. I always can find out the latest in research when I go, too, before it's public since my doctor and Nancy Klimas are good friends and she's kept up to speed.

The long ride down and the wait, visit, half my blood drawn out (kidding) and the ride back all make for a pooped kid when I get home even though I have pillows and lie down in the back each way. It's all that shaking and bumping around that makes me dizzier and tired, but sitting up doesn't change it and I can at least semi-doze.

Pris

Daytona getaway!

I was able last weekend to take my fourth 'away' in these 20 years I've had ME/CFS. My husband drove my friend and me to a condo on the ocean where we had one short outing each day with the help of a push chair and mostly just enjoyed being there on the ocean and relaxing. I'm crashing this week but the trip was worth it. I love the sea. I'm enclosing a few photos.

Shot inside the condo taken in the wall mirror running along one side. My friend is in the kitchen area and my husband is out on the patio watching the sea

Take from our patio right before dawn.

View from our patio just before the sun came up.

I'm standing in front of our car on the beach. It was HOT.

This was at the inlet. My husband rolled me out so I could see better. A sailboat is coming in behind me.

Click any photos to enlarge.

Now I'm off to rest again.

New Haiga out at Ink Sweat & Tears

To see the haiga go HERE.

Thanks,

Pris

Long time between posts

I've felt still so sapped of energy between friend visits (people I badly wanted to see) , whiplash therapy, and speech therapy that this blog has taken last place. Simply a matter of using my energy to do what I need to do and not much left over.

I do have a couple of poems up at the Outlaw Poetry Network. Click HERE to see them and comment on their site if you like them. For those of you who don't know John Bennett, he's an amazing poet and writes short verse he calls 'shards'. The first poem is dedicated to him. The second is titled 'Virgins'.

Back off to muster my energy. Thank you all for hanging in with me here.

Pris

Back to the ocean on Sunday with my friend Barbara

Another old friend has been visiting and we were able to get over to the ocean , this time on a crowded day, for about half an hour. I was wiped out after that. These weeks of continued whiplash treatments and speech therapy to regain my voice are taking their toll. My stash of energy isn't high and each week I feel more depleted. I'll be glad when even one of these things is resolved.

I'm glad I got to see the sea again...and most of all, my friend, all the way from Washington State.

When you need to relax....

Put your feet up and listen to these two...

Ludovico Einaudi - I Giorni



Debussy, Clair de lune (piano music)

My college archives

I recently discovered that Stetson, where I attended undergraduate school, has been building and maintaining an archive of annuals, school papers, memorabilia, and photos, going back to the early 1900's. I sent some photos from when I attended. They were especially interested in the dorm life photos, so I'm sharing a few here. It was fun scanning and looking back at these old shots taken with my brownie.

This is me outside my dorm senior year

Taken during the Early Admissions Program. We have our dorm adviser locked into her room.

Toilet papering the person and room when engaged! I'm to the right.

A surprise birthday party. It was a black bra, but I'm not posting THAT photo:-)

Hatter Holiday. Contest for Mr. and Miss Stetson. Look at those gowns and gloves!

My college friend was just here for a visit--ride over to the ocean!

As those of you with ME/CFS know already, house guests are difficult simply because of the extra energy needed, no matter how much you love them and vice versa. My friend knows my limitations, making her one of the few people I would invite for a stay. She was patient waiting for me to write notes since my voice has still gone south and we even got over to the ocean for about a half hour one day as the winds churned up the sea. That made it one of the very best times to visit. I'm glad we could get out. I'm glad I could see her, despite the toll it took on my energy.

 Marilyn and me trying to hang on against the gusts of wind!

This is my 'wheeee' photo, taken as my cushion and pillow blew south:-)

A lone surfer glides in to shore!

A shot of the beach and pier.

Speech therapy

I posted earlier that this protracted voice loss I have was finally diagnosed by the head of the ENT department at U. Miami as muscular dysphonia as a reaction to fibromyalgia pain in the throat. Recommendation was speech therapy to take the strain off of the muscles in the throat. I've now been for two sessions and do feel hopeful. Nothing painful in the sessions. She's teaching me diaphragmatic breathing...seems I talk forcing speech through the muscles of my throat rather than from my diaphragm. That only causes more pain and spasms. Right now I'm practicing the breathing and forcing air from there as I sound a few soft words. This part is basic. Once I get this down....and it's a LOT harder than it sounds....we begin to move on to more sounds and louder speech.

I've not been able to talk, other than a few soft words here and there, since Oct 8 when I had a recurrence of the same problem that plagued me beginning two years into ME/CFS (Sept 23, 1990 was when I was hit with the illness). That time lasted for six years and then , by working with allergies, I still could only talk for a little while spacing those times with long breaks. I had to write notes during that time.

It's been such a loss not being able just to freely talk with friends. I really hope this works.

Pris

Notes From the Gean is out with two of my haiga

Hit enter at Notes From the Gean, then go to haiga. I have two, so hit 'next' under my first one to see the second. While you're there, go through the journal. It's a good issue!

Haiku for the day and......democracy moves onward in the middle east

counting
his toes...
little piggies

Challenge: Write a haiku involving children. Your own. Someone else's. Your own childhood.
___________________
Still in the news, and even more exciting, Egypt has become a role model for people power all over the middle east. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has kept us to date with his on the scene reporting. Here's the beginning of his recent article:

Delirious Joy in Bahrain
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF

BAHRAIN — There’s delirious joy in the center of Bahrain right now. People power has prevailed, at least temporarily, over a regime that repeatedly used deadly force to try to crush a democracy movement. Pro-democracy protesters have retaken the Pearl Roundabout – the local version of Tahrir Square – from the government. On a spot where blood was shed several days ago there are now vast throngs kissing the earth, chanting slogans, cheering, honking and celebrating. People handed me flowers and the most common quotation I heard was: “It’s unbelievable!”

Read the rest HERE at his blog

I Am Sailing Rod Stewart

This was popular about the time I sailed down the east coast in my 22 foot sloop. I remember when we came down the East River and past the statue so this brings back many memories. In a forward shot you can see Sandy Hook where we anchored that night before going down the Jersey Coast. And the towers are still there.

This is day three of a sodden cold. Tissues are scattered everywhere and the bones of my face ache. This vicarious sail means a lot.

UPDATE: This video was removed from YouTube. I hope some of you saw it before it disappeared!

Beniign!

Eh yi yi...the pathologist has already looked at the four growths taken off yesterday morning and ALL ARE BENIGN. That means no more digging around on my face, ear or scalp, no more appointments on these. Now when I get rid of the headache from being shot up by one of the 'caine' family of meds to deaden, which I can't handle, I'll celebrate!

Now to get through my first speech therapy session tomorrow morning. My busy 'social' calendar!

Half-way through February Haiku a Day

These are my haiku so far. I look at about half of them as drafts to come back to later and make better.


a chill
weaves through my bones
weather or ghosts?
feb 1

mid-winter...
our lawn pelted
by powderpuff blooms
feb 2

one mouse's life
cut short today
cat snack
Feb 3


voiceless again ...
a song in my heart
waits to be sung
Feb 4

the kitchen
seems ten miles away today
broken wings
Feb 5


our lips
still almost touching
that forgotten photograph
feb 6




my mother's scent
almost washed away
her old jacket
Feb 8


piggy-backed safely
down the dark hall for breakfast
the ghost donkey waits...
feb 9

.
the plaintive cry
of a blues guitar...
RIP Gary Moore
Feb 10
Fantastic blues guitarist died Sunday night of a heart attack

fish going to school
in Bermuda today
my bare hook
.
Feb 11-


crying
over her blue pigtails
that naughty inkwell!
.
Feb 12
(I came after inkwells but the holes for them were still in our grammar school desks and we heard many stories of what little boys did with theirs before us:-)


arm in arm
on this bench by the sea
wed three decades today
Feb 13



curly-haired girl
showing off her cards...
you slip me yours
Feb 14

Today is our thirtieth wedding anniversary

Not up to going out but we watched a movie together and ordered a nice meal. It was a good day.

Still no voice so I had to communicate with notes and hand signals yet again today. I was hoping for a change for the better by now, but...

February is Write a Haiku a Day Month

Has anyone else been doing this among my blog readers? Haiku in the comments are welcome!

I'll post my first two and some selected ones again at the end of the month:

a chill
weaves through my bones
weather or ghosts?

feb 1

mid-winter...
our lawn pelted
by powderpuff blooms

feb2

I Was The One. This was one of the first 45's I owned by Elvis and wore it down to the groove!

For any of you who've never seen a 45 record, look below the video for an image on an old player :-)

This was the other one I nearly wore out. It's not live, unfortunately.
I want you, I need you, I love you.

Guerilla Pamphlet 7 is out!

To see the PDF version, go to Guerilla Homepage and click up top left on the current issue. The PDF version will appear. It's a fun pamphlet to be in. My two doll graphics are in this one. I'll post one as a teaser.

This is called Doll Casting a Spell. (click to see her in all of her 'large sized' glory.

xxPris

What a nice thing for Annette Hyder, poetry editor of In the Fray, to do.

She posted this about me on her blog today. I love it. Go to Annette Hyder blog and leave a comment, if so inclined. I'm sure she would appreciate it.

Disclaimer. The photo was taken MUCHO moons ago, but brings back wonderful memories. I was visiting my parents and had taken a walk with a much loved cousin on down the road leading into country. We stopped at these trees to take the photo. My dear Dee Dee is gone now, as are my parents and our home there. They live on in this photo and haiga created by Mike Keville.

The link opens in a new window.

Pris

Kindle

I finally broke down and bought a Kindle reader, the less expensive WiFo one, not the 3G. I have an encrypted wireless router, so this was fine for my needs. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I like the no back-lit screen, the light weight, so many free books or ones for 99 cents, and the ease in using it.

It's actually nice not to try to hold pages open in tightly bound books when I read, or have used books I buy at Amazon and have read stack up until they can be donated to the library. Since I do keep some books now I don't need to search for bookshelf space, either. A feature I really like is that once a book is read, when from Amazon, you can removed it from your Kindle but it stays in your Kindle archive to be downloaded free again later. The folders for putting books into categories also makes the list you do want on hand far more manageable.

Right now I'm not able to read as much as I want to, either books or online. PT for my whiplash (which still gives me headaches) and now speech therapy coming up for a problem with my vocal chords is pretty overwhelming. My energy is so limited that I'm crashing more than I'm doing anything else.

And finally, an older poem to share:


Runaway

Bare on the stained mattress,
hair spread beneath her
like the flame of a rising sun,
this runaway, this woman fleeing
her midlife, waits for the crazy man.

He lives in a jade forest,
cabin carved with his fingernails.
They've spied on him since Nam,
he's told her, aiming satellites close
in to listen, painting cryptic messages
across the sky with their jets.

She doesn't care.
She half believes him, wants
to believe him in her rush to escape
her glass house by the sea.

For that moment,
that sweep into another life
in her wish for a new man inside her,
a fresh mouth suckling her breast
she has given up everything, but

he carves deeper into the forest.
The voices say she's the enemy, too.
Thorns cut her feet leaving.
Judas kisses away her tears.
A cross marks the road home.


Pris Campbell
©2006

Published in The Cliffs: Soundings,
March 2008

Haiga out in Sketchbook Journal and the saga of lost voice continues

Look in Sketchbook Journal under 'haiga' on this haiga index page for two individual haiga by me and under 'photo haiga' to find two collaborations with Geoff Sanderson.

A good issue!

After a voice loss of three months plus, I went to the ENT, having delayed it only because I've had this problem since I got ME/CFS and for much longer periods in the beginning with nothing ever showing on my vocal chords. This time I have something called a 'glotic' gap, an atrophy that gives a 'bowlegged' appearance to the chords causing hoarseness and pain when talking. Speech therapy strengthens the atrophy and hopefully will give me my voice back again. It begins as soon as we can schedule it and work it around the whiplash treatments which are still twice a week.

I remember when my schedule was filled with work, my bike, sailing, piano, reading and friends....sigh.