Today’s Po_etc

Foreseeing by Sharon Bryan

Middle age refers more
to landscape than to time:
it’s as if you’d reached

the top of a hill
and could see all the way
to the end of your life,

so you know without a doubt
that it has an end -
not that it will have,

but that it does have,
if only in outline -
so for the first time

you can see your life whole,
beginning and end not far
from where you stand,

the horizon in the distance -
the view makes you weep,
but it also has the beauty

of symmetry, like the earth
seen from space: you can’t help
but admire it from afar,

especially now, while it’s simple
to re-enter whenever you choose,
lying down in your life,

waking up to it
just as you always have -
except that the details resonate

by virtue of being contained,
as your own words
coming back to you

define the landscape,
remind you that it won’t go on
like this forever.

Simi-like II

From the song “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” by Cake

With fingernails that shine like justice/And a voice that is dark like tinted glass.

The Painted Veil

Just viewed “The Painted Veil” … the 2007 version with Ed Norton and Naomi Watts, not the 1934 version with Greta Garbo.  I generally do not gravitate toward ‘period’ movies or classic literature screenplays, so I don’t know what led me to add this to my Netflix queue… unless it was Naomi’s creamy deliciousness.  Suffice it to say, I feel guilty for my possibly low-brow motivations because the movie was truly spectacular.  Spectacularly provocative visually, and spiritually.  Of course, if I wasn’t such a simple Cretan I would have already been familiar with the novel by Somerset Maugham.  I generally find Eddy’s portfolio to be smug but he and the rest of the cast do a swell job as well.  Highly recommended.

Where have I been all these years?

Well, not exactly years…. but just a few months shy now of being a year since my last post.   In the decades long effort to get a handle on my migraine headaches, October of last year I had a sleep study done by a legitimately certified clinic and neurologist.  The study revealed classic narcolepsy and mild apnea.  I have never exhibited the symptoms of narcolepsy such as nodding off at my desk, or at a stop light.  Nor have I ever been one to fall asleep while watching TV or a movie.   I was skeptical but agreed to try a CPAP machine and some sleep meds.

I couldn’t tolerate the CPAP machine, but after a little bit of tuning the meds seem to be pretty good.  I take 125mg of Lyrica and 1/2 of the typical Ambien prescription.  The Ambien puts me to sleep and the Lyrica keeps me in good sleep cycles for a good four or five hours.   I have had dramatically fewer headaches and I am feeling over all considerably better than I have felt in many years.  A couple months ago I began a moderate morning exercise routine that I have been able to stick with, expand upon, and really, become addicted to.

Since the weblog was traditionally a late night angst ridden journaling effort, it has suffered in the healthier me times.   But its more than just the fact that I don’t stay up late.  I’ll try to elaborate soon… Or will I?  <diminished chord on shlocky organ>