Cara Colleen

Announcement!!!

I’ve won the Vanderbilt University Medical Center House Organ (an in-house magazine) Annual Writing Contest in the poetry division. As an employee of Vanderbilt, I have entered every year since I started working here, but there are nearly 20,000 employees and I don’t know how many send in entries.

Last year, Wayne Wood, the director of News & Public Affairs gave me a very courteous phone call to inform me that although the committee chose a different poem, he personally thought that mine was a winner. It was published as the first poem on the honorable mentions page. This year, he called me to congratulate me on winning. They sent a professional photographer over this week and I will be featured in the July House Organ. It is a free publication, but only available around the Vanderbilt campus. If you have occasion to be at the Medical Center for any reason in July, pick one up and peruse it. There were also prose fiction and non-fiction categories, so the whole issue will be a good read.

I’ll try to pick up some extra copies, but I don’t know how many I’ll actually be able to get. I have the winning poem posted here already, but it’s a bit far back on the list. Here’s a quick link to access it if you’re curious. Grace and peace to all my friends and family!

http://www.caracolleen.com/archives/whirlwind/

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Never quite know what to say these days,
Some wisp of a thought floats by and
I snatch it with desperation like a starving man
Grasping the crumbs under the long-cleared banquet table.
The wealth of easy creativity with words seems a distant dream,
The faint echo of the foghorn heard round the bend downstream.
Now I wrestle with language as Jacob did with the angel.
Sometimes I get what I ask for, but
The cost is almost more than I can bear…

Never quite know what to say these days,
The similes and metaphors with halfway rhymes and rhythms
Fit poorly together in my mind…
Like the pieces of different jigsaw puzzles
Where the colors look oh-so-close-but-not quite…
Whatever the result,
At least I feel better for having tried!

Crazy Crazy

I drive myself crazy.
I’m sure I’ve said that before, but
What in the world is the matter with me???
I want to do everything… anything…
[sigh]

I’m starting to realize I just can’t.
So I do what comes to mind,
What comes to hand,
What crosses my path,
When I can, as best I can,
Till I run out of time.

Well, that happens frequently.
Somehow, though, I’ve managed.
I muddle through the days, and
I finish my recreational interests
A LOT more slowly
Than if I could just focus on
One thing at a time, but
I’m happy…
Relatively speaking anyway…

I’ve decided that if I can spend
FIVE minutes of my day
Doing something that I choose to do,
As opposed to a thing I “have” to do
(Like work or obligations),
Then I am content.

That is enough to keep me sane :-).
So even though my days are crazy,
My weeks are hectic, and
My whole brain wants expressive outlet,
I am not crazy…
Just plainly and simply a silly woman
With too much on my mind.