Tag Archives: Suffering

Dancing With Death: Revolutionary ImproVerse Haiku

I’m dancing with death./
Or rather, she is, and I’m /
trying to cut in.
———————–
Here is a letter we’re sending out to friends and family; Please forward this as you see fit.
Thank you!

Dear Family and friends,

Our daughter, Camilla, is very ill with an eating disorder.Her doctor says she requires residential treatment and wants her to be placed as soon as possible, because her heart is failing.We are trying to get the financing together, but it is apparent that we, her parents, cannot pay for this care on our own. Treatment at Avalon Hills, where we plan to place her,is $1600.00 per day.Because Camilla has no insurance they have reduced the cost to $995.00 per day.Her estimated length of stay is 4 to 6 months. We are applying for help through grants, scholarships and other programs. Camilla’s bishop is helping us with the process of getting help from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We have received some contributions from friends and family.The bishop has asked that we offer our extended family members and friends the opportunity to help us in this as well. The treatment center, Avalon Hills, is located in Cache Valley, Utah.Contributions may be made directly to the Center and sent to the following address:

Avalon Hills

Attn: Financial Office

P.O. Box 3412

Logan, UT 84323

Toll-free: (800) 330-0490

(Please note that it is for Camilla Kuhns).
FYI, if Camilla does not go into treatment there, they will give us the money back and we will apply it to where she is being treated.

OR:
You may also make contributions through Camilla’s blog / PayPal account, at MillatheNightBaker.blogspot.com

We have been so humbled by the outpouring of care not only in monetary terms, but also in love, fasting and prayers.

Thank you so much for the contribution you make in whatever form it may be.

Love to all,

Ilene Fluckiger Kuhns

DavidG. Kuhns

PS: For updates and more information, please visit Camilla’s blog at MillatheNightBaker.blogspot.com

Thanks To My Daughter’s Friend: Revolutionary ImproVerse Free Verse Poem

I wept so hard I could almost not dictate this.

I walk gratefully,
reverently,
into her house,
where my daughter’s guardian angel
stands watch.

Skin falls off
boiling plums
and young old bones
and her parents tell me
that they would give everything
to have their daughter back.
But since they can’t
they will give me what they can,
what their angel daughter
told them to give,
to make sure her friend,
my daughter,
doesn’t leave.

I stand on an island,
speechless.

It is only much later
that I can weep
tears of gratitude,
for I have already wept
tears of sorrow
for their loss.

Perhaps,
because of their daughter’s love,
voice,
inspiration,
and angelic soul,
they won’t have to weep
for mine.

It Frustrates Me I Don’t Know How: Revolutionary Improv Blogging Free Verse

I confess.
I don’t know how.

I know how to take troubled youths
and mold them into a fun-loving, happy,
“Did you have fun?” “YEAH!” team.

I know how to take eager young minds
and show them things in nature
their parents and teachers can’t see.
To teach them the balance between all things.
To help them help the world heal.

I know how to take young men and young women
into the wilderness,
how to prepare their wood so well
that it only takes one match
to keep them warm
and cook their food.

I know how to take illiterate folk
who for decades have claimed they
can’t write,
and have them create verse and prose
so moving
they can’t believe
the words fall from their fingertips.

I know how to take senior citizens
who feel they have no value
and bring out their stories
and find their worth
and make them smile
again.

I know how to make people
laugh,
rejoice,
size the day,
observe,
be happy.

I know how to make senior citizens
and babies smile and laugh,
how to make dogs
wag their tails.

I know how to take
suburban landscapes,
dead, barren lawns,
and change them into
multi-hued gardens
of scented delight
and nourishment
and beauty.

I know how to find
ancestors long gone,
how to help others
find their roots,
how to work through
the mists and dust of centuries passed
to find themselves.

I know how to take
a stranger by the hand,
look him in the eye,
connect,
smile,
and give him hope.

I know how to observe
people,
nature,
situations,
the world
and write verse
and prose
that move people
to joy
and contemplation
and action.

I know how to stand
in front of congregations
and make them weep
with joy
because I know.

But my daughter
is dying,
because I don’t know
how to navigate
a system that does not
value any of the things
I know how to do.
A system that requires
so much paperwork
that she will be
dead
before I know
what I don’t know.

And I don’t know how
to do what I must now
do.

A Citizen’s Warning And Lament: Improv Free Verse

Citizen!
Spend your life paying taxes,
Volunteering in the community,
Coaching others children to become better citizens, team players, more healthy.

Offer your life
Working to feed and shelter the homeless,
Leading youth on wilderness trips and service projects,
Giving of your time, talents, money,
and everything you have to your church.

And when the time comes
that one of your own needs help,
because she is too old,
she doesn’t have insurance,
you make too much money,
her condition isn’t seen as a disease,
and she becomes so thin
that she falls through the cracks,

Prepare, then, oh Citizen!
to stand by
helplessly
and watch her die
and wish you could you have volunteered
and paid
and given of your time, talents,
and everything that you had
to bless her life
and keep her alive.