A Fine Reading and a Real Pain in the Neck

I took part in a reading at Preservation Hall in Wellfleet Thursday evening, along with the winners of the WOMR José Gouveia Poetry Contest. First, the runners up each read their poems, then the third prize, second prize and first prize poets read their poems. Sometimes, somebody who won in the Nationals shows up to read their poem. But not this year. I bat clean up and read around six poems. Half my poems were political and the audiences was very responsive.

I was unusually nervous before this short reading of mine. I hadn’t performed for nine months and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to project or do a good job. I was greatly relieved to find out that I still have it. I’ve worked hard to be a good reader but was scared I couldn’t come through. Now I’m no longer worried about my hour-long reading on May 10th.

I hurt my neck somehow, perhaps digging, perhaps sleeping in a bad position, perhaps all of the above and something else. It was very, very painful, hurt down into the back of my left shoulder and kept me from sleeping much.  I went to my osteopath Dr. Dworet, on Wednesday and he worked on me for an hour.  It is better but not all healed. I was able to sleep Wednesday night, which helped a lot. I have some pain but not anything like it was before.  Dr Dworet insisted I get X-rays of my shoulder and neck, which I am scheduled to do next week Thursday. I hope they can figure out what’s wrong. It also makes a clicking sound inside me sometimes.

I haven’t been able to work in the garden this week until Friday, and even then I tried to be gentle and careful. This was an unusually cold winter for here and I lost my three lavenders [that were at least ten years old] and my two big rosemary plants. The sage and the lovage survived, but I’m not sure my oregano did. I’m still waiting to see what survived in my pollinator garden. There’s a lot of activity there. I’ll go to Bayberry Monday to get herbs to replace what I lost.

I finished Anne Enright’s The Wren, The Wren and I recommend it.  I’m now curious about her other novels. When we got back from the reading, we watched the NFL draft for a while. I know the Patriots are re-building finally after just muddling around for years, but I’m hoping they will at least be fun to watch agasin, at least somewhat competitive. And I’ll watch the Lions as much as I can.

I’ve started to bring out the transitional and summer clothes a bit at a time and have begun putting away warmer clothes.  I didn’t have any short sleeve trees and it was in the high 60’s yesterday. Also, I found 2 pairs of lighter pants. I began putting away sweaters and warm nightgowns.  Today I’ll bring out more tees and a couple of lighter skirts.