The Cancer Poem

The Cancer Poem

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Gnaw gnaw gnaws

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death infected rats

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trying to escape

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my bowels

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with a flaming sword

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of understanding

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marching them on

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one last gasp of life

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before I

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cough up blood

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and decay

Reviews

[Chris Shaw]

This cuts to the quick because I have been there. Ten months of treatment where I thought the chemo would kill me before the cancer did. Fifteen years ago but I have not forgotten it, or the friends of mine who didn't make it. This is raw gram. Yes, we all know someone.

Chris

[gram linski]

hey, Chris, aye sad but true, must have been horrendous to live through, but you survived so keep writing your great poetry for those who didn't, respect,

[Chris Shaw]

Aye, I was lucky. My Dad wasn't took him at 60, my brother at 62, but my mum has survived it twice, as well as my younger sister. You never forget your own good fortune gram :) Somewhere I have written something about it. I may dig it out of the archives.

[gram linski]

look forward to it, Chris, take care,

[CD Campbell]

Yeah it's a b***h. Think everyone has lost a few loved ones to cancer. Your poem was a graphic neck punch. Good stuff. My father in law has cancer in his liver and intestines. The tumors have shrunk, get this, with dog dewormer. Google that. Totally true.

[gram linski]

Thanks for reading, man, I appreciate it, will google, if it was that simple surely everyone would do it, sorry to hear about your father in law, hope he pulls through, thanks again CD,

[Eilis]

When my step-father had cancer (which was detected late and progressed quickly) I told myself I would start taking really good care of myself. I was there to witness the progression and treatments and even the last breath. That was seven years ago, and still I haven’t committed to my own health.

Then, my dad called me when he was about on death’s door with cancer in his nasal cavity and eye a couple of years ago. I was there to watch him go through treatments and to nurse him when he came home. To see him teeter on stairs and become a different version of the man I had known. But he managed to fight it off. I also committed in my mind to not letting myself be one of the victims of that f*****g disease. But, still.

I share all that because I feel like your poem is a poem about a poem that you hope never to write. As though the poem and disease lay dormant somewhere and the power of poetry (to extinguish the flaming sword) is being wielded as defense.

There’s a certain inevitability to cancer. At least it feels that way now. It’s hard not to know someone who has been touched or taken. And the way people suffer under the disease is so difficult to witness.

The graphic images of your poem are the stuff of nightmares, and I suppose there is no other way to face the ghost of it. It’s an unsettling idea, but, maybe we all feel these kinds of fears when we understand the prevalence of the disease and lose people we care for. But, there is only so much we can do.

Strong poetry here, Gram. I’m sorry for all of your own losses.

[gram linski]

thanks for your kind words and honesty, Eilis, sorry for your losses and pain too, aye the big C bites deep and doesn't care about age or religion or colour, how very progressive and enlightened of the f****r, your line about the poem of the poem was spot on kinds like if you invoke the Bogey man he might not actually come, but then again I've seen Candyman so who f*****g knows, always appreciate your honesty and intelligence in reviews

[gram linski]

if every Billionaire gave a tenth of his wealth to fighting Cancer, we might get somewhere

[Gee]

I think the big fella up on high quite likes an illnes, especially the terminal kind, as it stops this already overrun planet from buckling under the weight of to many folk. I reckon once the age of 90 reached that we should be cremated by a bolt of lightning, frazzled to a pile of dust, ( unless the person in question is of any use to society, that is apart from keeping the flies off their relatives while holidaying together, ammonia a great draw for all manner of insects) This would also save on cremation fees.

[gram linski]

wise words, Gee wise words, lol,

[Eilis]

Thanks to you, Gram, and you’re welcome. And, yeah, the billionaire thing. Seems sensible.

[R.E. Ray]

Having heard the accounts of family members and friends who've survived and succumbed, your poem captures the miserable, nasty nature of this disease and the awful treatments. The words, the structure, and the brevity strike the mind hard.

In Brad Paisley's song, This is Country Music, he says in the first verse, "Well you're not supposed to say the word 'cancer', in a song." He later says,"yeah that might be true... but this is country music and we do." Some might say the same about cancer in a poem. Well, this is your brand of poetry, and it works for you, gram. A remarkable poem on a very difficult subject.

[gram linski]

wow, thanks, R.E. that means a lot to me, will google Brad Paisley soon, country music is full of deviants and misfits, Sunday morning, coming down, lol, thanks again, for reading,

[gram linski]

just listening to Brad, awesome tune, will get back to this in time, deep stuff,

[Einstein Noodle]

this is so you gram ... if i may say so ... cuts to the quick .. you've surgically removed the mess and clutter of cancer ... and i am taken right to it ... the emotive quality in this one is amplified in its straight forward approach ... when i hit the closing four lines it tore me up ... we most certainly all have been brushed up against by cancer .. just days ago I lost a dear cousin of only 63 yrs of age ... she was a life long smoker and lung cancer took her .. very quickly as she decided against treatment ... i too hope this is not something you are dealing with yourself sir!
E.

[gram linski]

hey E, good to hear from you, sorry to hear about your cousin, just said the same kind of thing to Jacob, how can Elon Musk spent 40 billion quid trying to get to space when we have Cancer, for f**k's sake, thanks for reading

[Einstein Noodle]

yes...a good point ... not sure how it all works in the scheme of things ... apparently the prediction of weapons into plow shares (Isaiah 2:4) hasn't happened yet ... maybe there is hope eh!?

[jacob erin-cilberto]

very real, too real....i am with John on this one...hoping it is a poem..not autobiographical...
j.

[gram linski]

thanks j. same reply as Johns, I think Cancer has probably affected everyone, either directly or undirectly at some point, we all know someone,

[John the Baptist]

Graphic to the utmost. Very apt symbolism. At least I hope it's symbolism, and not autobiography.

[gram linski]

thanks John, not yet anyway but it is a family legacy, watched my mum whither away and lost various aunts uncles and cousins to the big C,