Life between the sheets (of paper) is not always rosy. And I know people like to read about the ‘rosy,’ because there’s so much evil and trauma in the world that it can be overwhelming. I understand.
The issue of violence, domestic violence, is one of those non-rosy topics but it’s important to talk about.
Even after many years, my own experience is hard to discuss. Victims/Survivors feel judged if they talk about the topic, sometimes by others and other times by themselves.
Suffice it to say that domestic violence can be deadly at worse and traumatic at best.
I’ve heard it said that writers work out their own issues in story. There’s a lot of truth in that. In one of my novels (unpublished) the main character experiences violence. The opening lines:
I didn’t run because I killed him. I ran because I didn’t. He was alive when I left, but that wasn’t important to the judge who sentenced me to San Bueno Correctional Facility. He was sure of two things: Alek was dead and I was the one who did it.
These are the black and white statistics:
Nearly one in four women, one in seven men and more than 3 million children in the United States are affected by domestic violence.
You can help change those numbers.
Assistance is a used cell phone away.
HopeLine phones are refurbished phones equipped with 3,000 anytime minutes of airtime and texting capabilities. They come with Verizon Wireless Nationwide Coverage, Call Forwarding, Call Waiting, 3-Way Calling, Caller ID, Basic Voice Mail and texting.
They are available to survivors affiliated with participating domestic violence agencies. This program has collected over 10 million phones, while donating over $18 million dollars to domestic violence organizations.
A great explanation of the program can be found here.
Through HopeLine, the public can help prevent domestic violence by donating no-longer-used wireless phones and accessories in any condition from any service provider at any Verizon Wireless Store, by mail or at special events held throughout the year.
How to Donate
If you donate your phone, erase any personal data from the address book, deleting call logs, erasing messages, removing stored photos and other media. As part of the refurbishing process, phones donated to HopeLine are scrubbed prior to distributing them for reuse to ensure all customer data is removed.
Three ways to help HopeLine:
In Person: Drop phones at any Verizon Wireless communications Store. Visit the online store locator.
By Mail: Print a postage-paid label , adhere it to the box/envelope and mail.
Remember when I began cleaning out and donating books? Well, that’s when I found a 2008 journal, lumpy from two 8 x 11 sized papers folded in fourths. I had written my first poem on those papers at a workshop.
Denise Chavez, author of Face of An Angel, Loving Pedro Infante, Last of the Menu Girls, and two others, was the instructor of the first writing workshop I attended. Her instruction, her demeanor, and her passion were poetry in motion.
The first day was about getting in touch with our senses. We sketched, found our own talismans, went outside for a walk, and wrote.
On the second day, Ms. Chavez directed us to a small dictionary which sat in the middle of the desk. The task was to open the book at whim, and with closed eyes blindly select a word.
My word was in Latin. Thankfully, “Caveat Emptor*” was defined in English. This word was to serve as a prompt for a poem. I wrote it down, put it into my journal and forgot about it for six years. With a little revising, here it is:
This one looks like a lot of fun and a good way for the single men to meet women and single women to meet men (Poem in a Purse?).
I’m such a newbie poet that I can’t (don’t) want the PAD or NPWM tests.
But, what I am challenging myself to do is one or two poems every Wednesday. I can do that.
Besides writing one of my own poems, I’ll post one that has caught my eye from either a poetry book I own or one I see from the poets I follow. Sometimes I’ll have three poems up.
Also, I’m single, so maybe I can get the nerve to participate in Poem in a Pocket Day. Oh, darn, I just remembered that is the day I fly to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow.
Well, men in the airport terminal, on the plane, and at the hotel beware of the poem in my pocket or purse.
My favorite poem, for this week, is from Sabra Bowers of Later, Miss Slater.
She participates in the Sunday Whirl, a challenge which gives 12 words as prompts that a poet turns into a poem.
Honeysuckle
she leaves honeysuckle to weave its tangles around forsythia branches knowing the fragrance soothes her southern soul
with scented memories of a long-ago girl who pulled wild honeysuckle blooms and sucked their sweetness
Sabra’s poem is lovely. Take a look at her other Sunday Whirl poems. I wonder if I can call my Wednesday posts, Wednesday Whirls? POW’s? (Poems on Wednesdays)…okay, I’ll stop now.
