This is powerful, thanks for sharing your experiences Amy. From your last poem, what strikes me is the overlap between post-COVID symptoms and PTSD symptoms and I can't help wondering if these two things are intertwined for many people? And if our immune systems also took a massive hammering from the stress we all lived through? I'm glad not to be the only one who's still speaking out on these subjects, while most of the world remains eerily quiet on it....
Whoa~I had never heard of blackout poetry, that's fascinating. Thank you for sharing as I know it's a vulnerable thing. This makes me want to do this with my medical records from delivering my kiddo.
This is stunningly profound. It is resonant of my experience of Covid in the hospital as well. I cried while reading it. I've thought about writing about Covid, but haven't been able to yet. It feels both so raw and so distant. I'm still emotional about it and numb at the same time. Thank you for putting words to it.
And on a logistical note - I hadn't heard of erasure poetry, what a cool concept! Also, I am way too familiar with spotted lantern flies as we've been dealing with them on the East coast for a few years and they are terrible!
Your poetry is so powerful- thank you for braving sharing it. And visually the black lines and erasure tells its own story.
I feel like you need to create a pause after each poem and allow the reader to breathe and really hear the words in your poetry. They give such a powerful feel of the lingering effect of the pandemic.
I didn’t work in the front lines but I think this represents what happens in trauma- how memories are snatches and jumbled.
I have not heard of erasure poetry before, but by golly this is so powerful.
These need to be published.
Or shared with those making public health decisions!
I love how uniquely creative you are in expression. I have never heard of erasure poems.
I too was exasperated by how everyone pecked at me to the bone for everything nonstop for years but very few checked on me then or even now. I cant believe i was flabbergasted that admin paid no attention whatsoever to what our ID dept offered our community and offered and still offers no support. No only is there lack of support but they also take away our support. Anyone who expresses outrage is shown the door and replaced by another foolish bamboozled up to their knees im debt doctor.
I thank everyone for their selfish and cruel ways. I learned more from the experience than any book. I think most people are controlled by either fear or greed or both.
I am grateful for the way hospital admin normalized treating us with little to zero worth even after what we did. I cant believe i was shocked. The institutions we humans built normalize harm that is the most reliable thing.
It was the awakening I needed to learn to check on myself and get out of this horrible matrix once and for all. To me the lack of community reciprocity spoke volumes about the fundamental root rot of our modern, transactional, built to isolate American society.
This is fantastic, powerful work. I love the gold branches you added to the second poem and the lantern fly with the tree on the 3rd. Brilliant. I also don't think it's melodramatic. You have expressed here feelings that are proper for what you have been through. I didn't get long covid, but I was terrified of it because one of my good friends got it right away at the very beginning before we really even knew what we were getting into. She shared openly about her suffering. She has adjusted her life in a way that is outwardly very beautiful, shifting from being a nurse to an artist. However, I appreciate your reminder to check in with people.
This is powerful, thanks for sharing your experiences Amy. From your last poem, what strikes me is the overlap between post-COVID symptoms and PTSD symptoms and I can't help wondering if these two things are intertwined for many people? And if our immune systems also took a massive hammering from the stress we all lived through? I'm glad not to be the only one who's still speaking out on these subjects, while most of the world remains eerily quiet on it....
Whoa~I had never heard of blackout poetry, that's fascinating. Thank you for sharing as I know it's a vulnerable thing. This makes me want to do this with my medical records from delivering my kiddo.
Wow, just wow.
This is stunningly profound. It is resonant of my experience of Covid in the hospital as well. I cried while reading it. I've thought about writing about Covid, but haven't been able to yet. It feels both so raw and so distant. I'm still emotional about it and numb at the same time. Thank you for putting words to it.
And on a logistical note - I hadn't heard of erasure poetry, what a cool concept! Also, I am way too familiar with spotted lantern flies as we've been dealing with them on the East coast for a few years and they are terrible!
Your poetry is so powerful- thank you for braving sharing it. And visually the black lines and erasure tells its own story.
I feel like you need to create a pause after each poem and allow the reader to breathe and really hear the words in your poetry. They give such a powerful feel of the lingering effect of the pandemic.
I didn’t work in the front lines but I think this represents what happens in trauma- how memories are snatches and jumbled.
I have not heard of erasure poetry before, but by golly this is so powerful.
These need to be published.
Or shared with those making public health decisions!
I love how uniquely creative you are in expression. I have never heard of erasure poems.
I too was exasperated by how everyone pecked at me to the bone for everything nonstop for years but very few checked on me then or even now. I cant believe i was flabbergasted that admin paid no attention whatsoever to what our ID dept offered our community and offered and still offers no support. No only is there lack of support but they also take away our support. Anyone who expresses outrage is shown the door and replaced by another foolish bamboozled up to their knees im debt doctor.
I thank everyone for their selfish and cruel ways. I learned more from the experience than any book. I think most people are controlled by either fear or greed or both.
I am grateful for the way hospital admin normalized treating us with little to zero worth even after what we did. I cant believe i was shocked. The institutions we humans built normalize harm that is the most reliable thing.
It was the awakening I needed to learn to check on myself and get out of this horrible matrix once and for all. To me the lack of community reciprocity spoke volumes about the fundamental root rot of our modern, transactional, built to isolate American society.
This is probably the best contemporaneous series from that time: https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-er-log-week-two.html
This is so. very. powerful, Amy. ❤️🩹 Thank you so much for sharing your blackout poetry.
This is fantastic, powerful work. I love the gold branches you added to the second poem and the lantern fly with the tree on the 3rd. Brilliant. I also don't think it's melodramatic. You have expressed here feelings that are proper for what you have been through. I didn't get long covid, but I was terrified of it because one of my good friends got it right away at the very beginning before we really even knew what we were getting into. She shared openly about her suffering. She has adjusted her life in a way that is outwardly very beautiful, shifting from being a nurse to an artist. However, I appreciate your reminder to check in with people.