PASSING THROUGH THE HONEY

I covered this place in my barefeet.
And sunned where I paid my debts
and generated my credibility.
Now, I am swollen with this intimacy, and sore.
Scalded, native and eager.

I pace around this place in barefeet.
And not even the grass in the diamond, clear and barren
or the stuffed ears, yellow and calcified
undo me.

Memory eats with eveyone else, from a common table.
And eats until it is finished.
I walked away from this place in barefeet.

bobo

i really like this, even though i don't think i get it completely.
i especially like the line "scalded, native and eager" - great words...


skye

I am with Skye here, Bobo you have lost me, but I am always a fan of women romping around barefoot...Nothing implies freedom like them.

AND they are almost as sexy as those swaying hips we see so little of anymore. JHS, Stephen and Jack all know of what I speak I am sure.

Brucefur

Bobo: I also like your words---but enlighten me---am not sure what exactly you are writing about....Ell

I like this one. I get an intangible meaning from it. It has meaning, but i couldnt put it into words. I'm sure the original idea was different from what Im seeing, but I like it smiles!
Lizz

Bobo, Thought I had it a few times but it faded from view. Do you know any bee keepers? jhs

I thank everyone for trying! I am plagued with ambiguity in most of my writing. And I have to constantly strive to keep my images grounded in something??? This one was especially bipolar because I wrote it from that title, I didn't title it because of the poem.

The title was what I found out was the meaning of the word, "diabetes." (Hey I always figured it was some old Greek word for, "No more fudge bars" or somesuch.) But the meaning was so pretty... and I started thinking back to when it first happened and I kind of "revisited" that summer.

The "barefeet" reference is just my metaphor for well covered and familiar ground-- something I'd been over and over in my mind.

The diamond is a baseball diamond at the small school I attended that gave me both a a great deal of pleasure and a hefty helping of frustration. Then the corn, which was an indicator of the season just after the baseball.

I guess the poem is primarily about memories and impressions from a time in my life before I thought about everything prior to doing it.

bobo

PASSING THROUGH THE HONEY

I have walked this worn path in my barefeet,
And sunned where I paid my debts
Generating my credibility.
Now, I am swollen with this intimacy, and sore.
Scalded, native and eager.

I pace around this place in barefeet,
And not even the grass in the baseball diamond,
clear and barren,
or the stuffed ears of corn, yellow and calcified; marking the season
undo me.

Memory eats with everyone else, from a common table.
It eats until it is finished,

But I walked away from this place in barefeet.

bobo

Hey Bobo, I have taken what you said above and toyed with it a little bit to see if I could make it more understandable. I think I have, although admittedly being ignorant of the meaning of Diabetes it is still going to cause some confusion.
You have written a very beautiful piece here though, and I really love the imagery. I hope that you can forgive my trespass upon your sanctuary.

Brucefur

Brucefur:

When you do it as well as this-- please feel free to tresspass! I like the changes VERY much... and will use them, with your permission, from here on. Thanks for some guidance in how to change it...that's my weakest point in writing. I can "see" that it's not right, but am almost always at a loss to know what to change!

bobo

Only if with your permission I can save a copy ;-)

I really, really like this one, even if a lot of it went over my head; the imagery is just too rich to pass up.

Thank you so much for the complement.

Brucefur

Bobo,
Interesting perspective.

Although I crave to understand I also enjoy it when things go over my head…It makes me reach.

-Squire

Brucefur: please do, I'm thrilled you like it that much.

Squire: Thank you, though this may be more an, "under your feet" than "over your head"!!

bobo

Bobo, Thank you for clearing that up. Are you type 1 or type 2. I'm a 2, only pills, diet, and checks. jhs

Clever title Bobo. Diabetes comes from the Greek 'passing through' and honey also from the Greek 'mellitus'. Passing through being a reference to the disease's symptom of excessive urination, and honey because the urine of diabetics smells and tastes sweet. (And NO Stephen, before you even suggest anything) My sister also has Type l diabetes as it is usually referred to nowadays, and my father died from complications of, at the age of 36. Insulin was first used in1922. 1.4 - 1.5 million Americans are afflicted with Type l diabetes, and about 7 million with Type ll. OK nuff said, JP, RN signing off.

I should have said 'insulin was first used on a human in 1922', I don't know when it was first approved or produced. JP

I'm a type I of the variety "brittle" J.H.

My younger sister is also a type I, though not brittle... Type II's have been neglected in a way, you know, they've been told, many of them, that their diabetes is not as "bad" as the type I's. Certainly the type I seems to be more virulent as far as how fast things can happen, but I know alot of type II diabetics that didn't get diagnosed in time and suffered a great many complications before they got help. I have both kinds in my family.

It's great if you can control it with diet and exercise alone-- my grandmother was able to do that fro 17 years before she had to get on insulin. I'm on 4-5 injections a day. I've been VERY lucky with the complications so far...

bobo

My heart goes out to all of you; my father has diabetes, not sure what type, but it isn't too serious yet.

My roomie Wendy just got diagnosed with type II, and so far it is being controlled by diet alone.

Her father has type I and has been taking injections for the entire 17 years that I have known her. He now has some serious health problems associated with it, but he is still hanging in there.

You Bobo, JHS and any others out there. I greatly admire you; keep up the good fight.

I am especially awed Bobo that you are able to take your illness and use it as a source of inspiration! Bravo.

Salute!

Brucefur

Bobo--The explanation helped---I loved it even before I even remotely understood! Interesting approach. Diabetes sucks! And so do the side effects...sad to read how many have to deal with it....hugs Ell

It's better than cancer and better than aids.
It makes you a target for pins.
Please forgo the larder raids.
And just keep up your chins.

Don't give an answer to everyone's question.
Don't sleep on the couch all day.
Don't give in to the indigestion,
It's a price you don't want to pay.

Pass up the honey, no sugar please--
Think how much better you are!
You might have died years ago from a sneeze!
But today you have only a scar.

This is poem I wrote when I was about 20 and still had hopes of learning to rhyme!! lol. My doctor liked it and my mother, but he was paid well and she had vested interest! Seriously, though, I feel for the guys who get this disease after years of otherwise good health because if you get it as a child, youtake it more in stride... just another puzzling thing to figure out. But getting it later in life and understanding what it might/could mean is tougher.

bobo

i have to say event though i understand little, i very much enjoyed this poem from my own point of veiw. The explination helped me understand yourside much better. i haddnt thought to relate it to that. This is a great poem!

calcified, great wc!
Sargirl

Thanks for stopping by for a read, Michelle and you also, Sargirl. This poem has taken some twists, but I think it's in a form I can now live with, thanks to help from friends (esp. you, Brucefur!).

bobo

Bump for JHS, my dad, and Nutmeg's too (as well as any other diabetics out there).

This has long been a favourite of mine; one that I think that even Les is unaware of.

Sincerely,

Les? Unaware? I don't think so!

And haven't I told you, boy, that ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I willl not put?

Stephen

All that have come to realize i think can be believed. Yes so thanks for the read. I enjoyed it. Im glad to see you put effort into making us think harder. You might accomplished someone throwing a chair across the room.

"To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself." Anne Rice

Stephen, I'm unaware of many things. Not the least of which is this poem. Thanks for sharing it, Bruce.

Les

Thanks Brucefur for bumping this back up for another look. As I went over it again I noticed the "barefeet" references as metaphors for "well covered and familiar ground." Interestingly enough, diabetics are discouraged from going barefoot as the feet are prone to major problems. I am off my medications and I am staying away from as much sugar as I can...man, they put that stuff into almost eveything.

jhs

John,

It is my sincere belief that our governments need to impose a sugar tax on any food, or beverage that contains more than 10% sugar. I personally believe that sugar is as bad as cocaine, heroin, and nicotine; as such I think that it needs regulation.

Now, I am not a diabetic, but I don't think that is the only issue; despite diabetes being the fourth largest cause of death in my country. No I think the real issue is that as well as diabetes, there are many other health impacts on society from the over use of sugar, including obesity (heart disease), hyper-activity, and obviously, dentistry.

I think that a 50% tax on such things as coca cola (6 tsp of sugar a can!), and other products would go a long way to making companies think of alternative ways to make their products. And I don't mean artificial sweeteners either.

Just my $.02 worth.

Sincerely,

Hello, everyone:

Thanks for the bump, Brucefur... funny, I haven't been here in a while and haven't written anything lately, either, and this poem is sooo appropriate to find when I come back! I've been busy with the health thing today and for a few months now and just got my first taste of serious lazer surgery for my retinopathy. I'd had some minor stuff done before, but this was my first substantial lazer treatment.

It didn't go too badly initially, but afterwords the migraine from the flashes of (incite? Wouldn't that be nice!) light wasn't friendly.

JH and any diabetics listening: a word of advice: if you are ever told you need some lazer for your eyes, DON"T get on the internet to find information. I nearly cancelled my surgery it was so scary. There's one site that shows you what you will see as your site is going...brrrrr!

bobo

Hey Bobo,

I haven't been writing much either. Not here, or elsewhere, let alone poetry.

I hope that the side effects of your laser surgery aren't long term, and that you recover quickly.

Sincerely,

Last bump for today

Thanks Jack. Beautiful bobo!

Wow. Look at that, nearly 18 months since this one had a bump.

Bobo,

Thinking of you and hoping you are well. I know that they have come out with some amazing new drugs for Diabetes lately that are doing wonders for both my father and my roommate. Hopeful you have been able to reap the rewards of these new drugs as well.

Sincerely,
Brucefur

Bobo's last post was Jan. 2005, so maybe she's locked out like so many others. How are thinks in Tampa, Bobo?

Les

Giving this a bump for a friend of mine who says he smells honey when he sneezes...

Brucefur