It is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I say, "So is poetry." In One Man's Chronic Pain: Poetry from the Heart, writer, blogger and health advocate Michael Fernandez opens the window to his life of excruciating pain from daily migraine and Churg-Strauss Syndrome (a rare form of vasculitis). But from within the tortured words of heinous suffering, there emerges a glimpse of a beautiful human soul that will not be knocked down; a heart that reaches out to others who suffer; and a spirit that fights to raise awareness of these painful diseases, despite the suffering he endures from just breathing some days.
Some of Fernandez's poems are raw, painful, and at times, dark flights of thought; others are passionate pleas for medicine to heal his pain, for others to understand his suffering, and for a pain-free life that is beyond his grasp at this time. He only writes his poetry while in the midst of a high intensity migraine, which he says allows him to use the bare emotion to write effortlessly. His words take us into his pain, and then further into his heart:
Every day I sit in so much chronic pain it's as if I'm being infinitely tazed,
My body convulses with the surge of electrical impulses tightening all my veins.
My muscles clamp up and my nerves get a strong dose of shock,
As my vision and hearing begin to distort I know a migraine is about to pop!
(from As if I Were Being Tazed)
Look at what we can do for one another when
working together our words flow like a running river,
healthy and free our minds run astray from
this pain we all suffer each day.
(from Still Bleeding Red)
One Man's Chronic Pain: Poetry from the Heart is available from Amazon.
Some of Fernandez's poems are raw, painful, and at times, dark flights of thought; others are passionate pleas for medicine to heal his pain, for others to understand his suffering, and for a pain-free life that is beyond his grasp at this time. He only writes his poetry while in the midst of a high intensity migraine, which he says allows him to use the bare emotion to write effortlessly. His words take us into his pain, and then further into his heart:
Every day I sit in so much chronic pain it's as if I'm being infinitely tazed,
My body convulses with the surge of electrical impulses tightening all my veins.
My muscles clamp up and my nerves get a strong dose of shock,
As my vision and hearing begin to distort I know a migraine is about to pop!
(from As if I Were Being Tazed)
Look at what we can do for one another when
working together our words flow like a running river,
healthy and free our minds run astray from
this pain we all suffer each day.
(from Still Bleeding Red)
One Man's Chronic Pain: Poetry from the Heart is available from Amazon.
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