Oy veh Dr Shlewiet - Mazel Tov Latif - Greetings Craig Slingluff

Selfie in warm PJs with a cuppa blueberry tea to help keep me warm at this outrageous hour of 12:45 am. It's so cold in the house - I keep the temp at 69 - that I wear layers and also my shoes for when I go in the kitchen.

Bundled up this morning to run after Mailman Ken - man, it was cold - and very slippery - I wanted to mail a supportive letter to my Board Member Dr Basem K Shlewiet.

That man is in serious trouble for 'criminally assaulting his patients.' I wrote the letter with the help of my friend Teresa. The final words were:

One day you may find that writing a book about your experiences will be healing and provide a blueprint for other psychiatrists to follow when confronted by intolerable temptation.

My prayers go out to you, your family, and the victims. (I should've wrin 'to YOUR victims)

 Read the story in the Philadelphia Inquirer and watch the damning video. 

I worked on the Compass all day long, taking a break to watch and nap thru Netflix during my lunch break: a great film noir "Crime Against Joe" with John Bromfield and Julie London.

Then I watched "The Following" with Kevin Bacon, who played a detective trying to catch a brilliant professor of literature who just happened to be a serial killer.



Hi Kev!!! Can you see me typing on my Red Living Room Couch?

Lemme tell you something before I forget. You know how I love my house, right? Last nite while falling asleep, it came to me that I love it the way I love a person. Or a child. For example, when I walk in the upstairs hallway I reach out and touch the Yellow Quilt hanging on the wall. It's so beautiful and it's mine.

The same is true for the soft hallway carpet I picked out all by myself. The house is the keeper of my soul. Does that sound strange?

I worked for about four hours on the story of Latif, a reformed thief. I titled the story "LATIF: Twenty Years a Prisoner." Iris said it was a great tale.


This is Ellen Rosenberg who's winding up her teaching of English in Bali. She suggested I use one of her photos for the Compass.

We've got the cover photo. Actually, it's a stage set from a play written and directed by


Stephen Stahl, an actor/director who lives in New Hope. He and his then partner were the first gay couple to apply for a marriage license in PA. Very interesting story about his career and his setbacks. He is astoundingly frank and riding the wave of the success of his latest play, off-Broadway.

And, me? I never leave Cowbell Road unless the gig is 20 minutes away or less from my house!

Presenting

Craig L Slingluff, Jr, MD, of the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Craig is a terrific poet. We'll publish two of his poems. I found him quite by accident.

In 2004, the Compass had a wonderful series of poems called "Remembering Janice in Building 50" by a man with a similar name. 

Here's Building 50, where many New Directions' members, including myself, spent many an awful stay after being out of control with our mental illness.

Don't it give you the creeps? Dickensian. My motto: Make your first visit your last.

So, when I goggled the Craig of Janice fame, I came up with
    
Craig  L.  Slingluff,  Jr.,  MD
Professor of Surgery
Research Interests: Human Tumor Cell Antigens

The man is a wonderful poet and studied with the great Gregory Orr and Carolyn Forche. Read Forche's "The Colonel" here. 

I believe it's a true story b/c I met her at Arcadia College in Glenside, PA, at the Poet Laureate Ceremony when blind David Simpson, accompanied by his dog "Willow" became the Poet Laureate of Montgomery County.

Let's get them in the Wawa video cam now:


Forche


Great shot of David with his long gray hair. His twin brother Dan, also blind, is a poet, too.

Back to Craig, I'm especially interested in cancer treatments since my dad - as well as my BF Simon - both died of lung cancer that meta'd to their brains.

Said Craig in his emails tonite about his cancer research: "We've made some discoveries, and continue to learn a lot.  Some of the work has made a bit of a splash in the field."



AND

"In cancer, we are trying to induce immune responses about the "transformed self" cells that make up the cancer.  It is a fascinating field indeed."

Read Craig's poem "Mastectomy" in the Virginia Quarterly Review. What sensitivity!

Two of Craig's fave poets are Robert Hass and Mary Oliver. I'd never read Hass but reserved it online at my library.

Let's you and I find one of Hass's poems and read it together at - what? - two in the morning already?



Howdy Bobby! I shore like your poetry. Ever heard how Bill Moyers pronounces it? PWO-eh-tree.

Wow, this is an awesome series of pwomes. Read it here and swoon!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna open my front door - it's 18 degrees outside - and pay my respects to God. I like to say hello, even tho he's never there.