Urban Living and Blackout Poetry

Gizzy

I was minding my own business, walking Gizzy, our chihuahua mix, back from his appointment with his new veterinarian.  We are temporarily living in an urban area, so I can do things like walk to the veterinarian's office and check out the fun shops in between the vet's office and our house.  This is one of the good parts of living in a city, and since it is temporary, I am enjoying it as much as possible.  We passed a book store with boxes of free books out front. Free anything really calls strongly to my spirit, but free books is like a siren's song! Plus, I have a couple of craft projects in mind, as I usually do, so I rummaged around to see if I could find anything to read or to use for my projects.  I found a very cool, vintage garden book that will be good for something but I am not sure what and three hard cover compilations of best selling non-fiction from the early 1990's.  

They didn't work out for the project I intended, so I decided to do blackout poetry instead.  Blackout poetry is written by choosing the words on the page to form a poem.  Because the content of the page directs the tone of the poem it creates an avenue to ideas and themes that I don't usually generate.  I tend to be more rainbows and butterflies, with a focus on nature and my family. These poems seem to explore human nature and the second poem is definitely darker than my usual stuff!  

"Counsel"

He would accept anything that resembled wisdom,

the future,

a new beginning.

The moment I could see a change in mood, grace.

He accepted the ultimate as his own.

"Let me tell you precise words, 

upon advice, upon facts, and intelligence."

I listened and watched since birth.

Thus began years of service,

access to every aspect of community.

To follow the most rewarding activities.

We met human intelligence.

"Darkness"

The sanctuary from life, 

in the middle of the night.

I listened carefully into the bottomless darkness, near the end.

I watched in silent distress.

Continued intrigues present speechless.

It was suddenly clear demons were inside him,

immediately after me.  

Perspective or Watching My Husband Summersault Down A Cliff

Top of our cliff looking down

As a preface to this post, it is important to note that my family and I lived in a house situated directly adjacent to a cliff.  And not the bottom of said cliff, at the top of this cliff. I was initially hesitant about buying a property that included a cliff but I really grew to appreciate it. It came with great views and was a great place to chuck yard debris.  

In August 2017, on one of the hottest days of the year, I walked out in the backyard and approached the edge of the cliff to see my husband, Aaron, disappearing over the edge hanging on to a rope with a hastily tied knot.  The knot promptly untied and he went arse over tip down the side.  As he was summersaulting down the side of the cliff I said "I thought that might happen."  Simultaneously, he was fearing for his life and wondering why I was so nonchalant about his demise.  

My lack of concern was really adding insult to injury because he had spent the day dealing with backed up plumbing.  In addition to a cliff, our home also had a plumbing system with a habit of flooding the basement bathroom (you can read about our plumbing saga).

The attempted climb down the cliff was in pursuit of our Shop Vac, which he had dropped when attempting to dump the water he had vacuumed up dealing with the plumbing fiasco.  

So, Aaron is contemplating his imminent death after a day of vacuuming toilet water from the bathroom for roughly the 249th time, he is at least happy that he won't be dealing with plumbing ever again.  He is, however, very miffed that I didn't express any alarm.  

Before you assume my lack of alarm was because I was expecting to cash in on his life insurance, let me explain.  I had something that my poor husband was lacking.  That something was perspective.  I could see very clearly that he was going to do a complete backward summersault and then come to a stop on a ledge with a cushy tangle of English Ivy and a nice stump acting as a railing. (His landing was a little sideways, so I gave him a 9.5!)

Creek at the bottom of the cliff.

Once he stopped rolling and regained his composure, he located the Shop Vac and three of its four wheels.  The fourth wheel was lost forever more to the English Ivy.  He carefully picked the rest of the way down, walked across the bottom of our property and climbed up the trail we had on the other side of our cliff.  He appeared just in time to be introduced to the plumber who had recently arrived to assess the situation. 

The plumber was very alarmed to learn Aaron had just fallen down a cliff and was also confused by my lack of alarm.  The plumber also lacked perspective. He calmed down when I explained about the soft landing.

Several hours later, it was my turn to be panicked.  We were luxuriating in the shower with our fully functioning plumbing when my husband said "Look at what I found in my butt, honey!"  I was completely lacking in perspective because I wasn't wearing my glasses and all I could see was a darkish blob. My initial response was some level of alarm, after all, nothing good comes out of someone's hind end!   My alarm dissipated when I realized that he had a stick and a couple leaves, which he had picked up during his tumbling exercise.   

Our perspective is one of the keys to understanding emotional reactions.  I had zero panic about Aaron's fall because I could see from my vantage point at the top of the cliff that he was going to have a soft landing after a short tumble.  Aaron experienced complete panic because he was the one tumbling down the side of a cliff.  The plumber had mild panic hearing about it because it sounded terrible but Aaron was not obviously injured. 

When feeling panicked, or anxious, or overwhelmed, etc., checking your perspective can shift your emotional experience. Getting a new perspective on your situation isn't always easy but is certainly more feasible than mid-summersault down a cliff!