Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Katie's poem and reading video



The Incurable Optimist:

Michael J Fox’s Life with Parkinson’s


Right now, I’m feeling pretty good
don’t you worry about me.
If I let it affect everything,
it’s going to own everything.
I don’t deny it
or pretend it’s not there,
but if I don’t allow it to be bigger
than it is,
I can do everything else.

My body is an isometric exercise,
I’m always putting pressure against things.
Whatever I’m doing at any given time,
I’m also doing something else-
I’ve always got this thing going on.
I can’t always control my body
the way I want to, and I can’t control
when I feel good or when I don’t.
I can control how clear my mind is.
and I can control how willing I am to step up
to anything if somebody needs me.

One thing the Illness
has given me,
is a degree of death.
I have accepted that loss and it’s
helped me to realize there’s gonna
be that big loss.
I can now accept anything,
acceptance is the key to everything.
My happiness grows in direct proportion
to my acceptance.

I have to think of myself as a regular human being,
with an incurable optimistic illness

.

2 comments:

  1. katie, thanks for motivating me by posting your poem words right away. it's now 1:15 a.m. and i've been working with the video for two hours. i think i can get the quality better as i experiment with the next videos i put up. then i'll change yours if it can be better, but great job today and i'm going to miss all of you in the class and your poems! nice job!

    mike

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  2. Great poem Katie!
    I really liked that you chose Michael J. Fox's life as your subject because I watched that TV-special about him and I thought you did a good job capturing his spirit. You illustrate the concept of finding the positive in a negative experience, which is exactly what Michael J. Fox does when dealing with his illness. I particularly liked some of the last lines of the poem
    "My happiness grows in direct proportion
    to my acceptance."

    I think you should get his address and mail him the poem:). Nice job Katie!

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