Connecting Through Corona

The Power of Joy One of the things that has helped me to overcome my own fears and anxiety, and one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life has been getting a dog during lockdown. The results have been incredible. Not only have I overcome my phobia of dogs that I’ve had for over 40 years, but it has brought so much joy and love into my life that I even decided to get a second dog out of the blue during the second lockdown. I feel a kind of freedom and joy unlike any I’ve ever felt before and that’s why I’m choosing to share this story here with you, to see if it can inspire you too, to pursue all your dreams and never let your fears stop you from doing anything in life, because if I can do it, anyone else can do it too. During lockdown, I finally began to enjoy my beautiful home. For the first time ever since I got my place, I’d been able to spend quality time at home and be here longer than for just sleeping and showering before heading out in the morning to yet another hectic d

Diane Hands I have a voice too drama group is meeting on Wednesday’s and Saturday’s.  It is usually for just over an hour, not for a whole Saturday afternoon.  We still act out some of our pieces, ‘In the Ghetto’ and ‘Dr. Guttmann’s Journey from Germany to Stoke Mandeville are the favourites.  We also play memory games which helps us to remember lines when acting.  We also practice relaxation techniques which help when we get nervous, or forget our lines. I was asked by fellow authors for the second book hearts on the Rise Connecting Through Corona.   What had impacted this group of vulnerable adults. So I  asked each one of  the group what they missed, and what were they finding difficult.  Each one of them said that they missed going to work. I thought they would say missing seeing parents and going home for a weekend. They also missed being able to go different places on public transport or in a taxi.  Only being able to walk to the Grocery store and back again.  Not being able to t

  FOR A FUTURE LOVE     How does the heart heal once hurt, or perhaps Forked by feeling? For even prised from the sleeve Its trace lingers, as a hopeful hand holds it out   For your scrutiny, even if of course, you reject it. Which you have your right to do as so many Will want to bouquet theirs to ease doubt.   And yet across these difficult days I have felt myself Fall unthreaded. To be picked up by wind I’m still watching As I stay inside weighed by dreams. In which you came   To feature so fast, so I wanted every word I had to contain you, And to praise you, too. For your kingdom and a kingdom Still to come I’d tear seams from that deblooded sleeve   To the soul if I thought that you might find it worthy. I would make myself King of splinters and let the martyrs’ wood Spike my skin. For I simply imagined, all at once an entirely   New life beside you, as the current one we’re all living, Even if for a limited time feels like sin. We just don’t know Who’s sin. That’s all. As we all

  KIRIE’S KISS       Saint Francis of Assisi cared hard, as does she through Her purpose, but Kirie’s kiss is not wasted as the love It represents is for souls housed in an animal’s skin As opposed to the men she has honoured, as she granted   Them sex through work, her protection for those Without voice warmed the cold - which stems from the cruelty Life grants. As a saviour of strays, the cats and dogs calm her, For just as men grew wild before her, so this noble nature   Girl took them in. Letting them penetrate and crowd her, With a penile chorale, their notes wavered from the low Moans of wanting to the increasingly high pitch of sin. Each ejaculation she stoked led to the precious animal   Fur she loves stroking. Kirie funded her love for her pets Through her body and through her body’s use, she allowed Men do to do what they wilt, as she in turn never wavered, By not letting them know how she suffered, even Assisi   Himself would b

DAD DAY     While rarely talked about now, it is safe to say He still lingers: the good-looking man my looks fail at Who left me all of those lost years ago. For today,   In 1994 Tommy slipped from this earthly stream To far water, with only an empty bath to receive him, As a boat on the Styx he’d cargoed – away from   The world he fought through, as the last years Of his life proved a challenge; losing his job, home And partner to suddenly reappear at my door.   I had just started to work at that time, getting My first professional jobs as an actor and to see His face and need naked on that street in Liverpool   Then hurts me more than I can express thinking of it Now, writing here, as I do, as if laying my Dad in verse Might insult him. My only hope is that expansion through   The limits language sets might convey the closeness I feel to that still bright, long dimmed person. Particularly As my grief for my mother eclipses all, and of c