This has been perhaps the most challenging year of my life.  It began with the knowledge that it was not to be long before my head was cut open and a bypass done in my brain.  --That is, if I was accepted as a patient by Dr. Spetzler.  You know how oftentimes we make New Year's resolutions that we tend to forget and not fulfill . . . well, this year has not held much of the unfulling part of the resolutions. 

The one thing I understood was that the best thing I could do was to be as healthy as possible to come through the surgery favorably.  It turned into three surgeries . . . and funny how for months afterward, I thought my head would smooth out & feel normal again.  Ha!  Now I know a bumpy head is a little reminder that will always be there, even when my hair has all grown out & covered it up.

My resolution for this year is to grow stronger and more self-sufficient.  I'll hang onto the 2006 resolutions of being as healthy as possible also . that is healthy physically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually.   I suppose that keeping that health-orientation will help me to fulfill my goals of strength and self-sufficiency. 

Perhaps the greatest lesson of 2006 has been that Nature rules! 

The blizzards have made me think of this poem, "Drought," since it appears that the drought has ended.

People must wonder how many people the water here can support.  Definitely xeroscaping is a good idea here.

Sprout, grow, bloom, go to seed . . .

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(c)2004 Binnings ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 For a Man

You light a fire in an ash can           
under the willow and sliver moon
setting with Venus 
over the open sea. 

We talk of shifting continents,
how this wind may breathe over us
the mingled dust  of our ancestors' bones. 
Mars rises behind the moon.

The fire casts violent shadows 
over your face.    I am  a continent
of women to you---but to me . . .

you are one man . . .
who fires a thousand years
of rage into me-- 
enough rage to burn the sky--

I am no continent--but an ocean 
swallowing fire whole. 
Watch now how Mars trails the moon...

and the moon is falling into the sea

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(c)2004 Binnings ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Now I'm wondering if it was the aneurysm pressing in my brain, creating a Pressing-Feeling.  I know there was a day before the doublevision set in that I got up in the morning and started down the stairs, and the doubling existed for a few seconds. 

Prior to my awareness of the aneurysm, I had two bad falls on ice about one year apart from each other.  It is impossible to know if they influenced the aneurysm or not.  But they were memorable falls.  Here's a picture taken a month or so after the first fall -- still the bump & bruise.

And here is "Pressed."  (Next I hope to put up translations.)

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(c)2006 Binnings ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Nine poems September 16 on this podcast.   Four of them in two sectors -- subject of love-- other, subject of politics.  And a single one:  "Drama." 

Sixty or so saved in my files.  Some of them I intend to change before anyone else hears them. 

Some others will soon be arriving here at Libsyn.com.   I haven't yet recorded my translation of Neruda's "Ode to Laziness,"  and I've only recorded two of the 15 of that beautiful Puerto Rican woman with heart, mind, and spirit--Clara Lair.  Yet I'm thinking I will next put some translations I've done of the poems of Clara Lair, Sor Juana, and Rilke.

Thanks for listening. 

Eleanor

Among a few other of my love poems -- "La Gitana," "Carnival Man," and "What Is a Love?" -- is:

Guaranteed Love Spell to be Chanted During a Blue Trapper�s Moon

i am everywoman whose eyes have held yours, who has steamed your nettles has raised welts in your mind
made you laugh, weep ......drift
i strip away your barricades,
your hesitation to love

my breath stuns enchants you with the scent of ginger sassafras and then fills your bowl 
i am a mosaic of spices that awakens your taste
my touch sings to your skin like a harem of bells
i am the yeast leavening your dough to ecstasy

 i host your roots ....make you lucid

i lay my claim to you
you will never forget me

(c) 2006 Binnings  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The poems contained here are:

 "Generations," "Trackin'," "Greed?" and "Sow a Habit." 

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(c)2006 Binnings ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

(C)2008 Binnings ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I began recording the poetry a couple years ago (8/06), but then got stopped in my tracks by a brain aneurysm...but the old brain is still jammin'.

But . . . I'm not thrilled with the sound of the combo file (ask me what program I used). So I've put up the first single, "Aspen."  I may end up taking the combo down.

Here is the link to my web page.  If it doesn't send you there on a click, just copy and paste into the browser.
 http://soltramp.tripod.com/eleanorbinnings/