THIS IS MY BRAVE a huge success - Poem: My Morning Coffee

THIS IS MY BRAVE aims to educate the public about mental illness and help erase stigma that keeps many people from getting help.

Help is out there! Have confidence that many fine psychiatrists are available.

Our program was a huge success.

But don't believe me! Let's hear it from Rem.

Just got back from This Is My Brave. Great! And what a cross section of people. I thought you were the funniest. I actually know Jennifer Petro, because he/she used to have a Roslyn P.O. box. One day he came up to me and said, "For your records, I'm Joe now, but in another three weeks I'm gonna be Jennifer." 

Great Arlo Guthrie homage, by the way. I thought the testimony from the Egyptian woman on your left was super. The fellow to your right mentioned the Simon & Garfunkel song that says, "The New York Times said God was dead." That's actually Elton John from his song "Levon," which I heard today, actually. I sat all the way in the back. I saw a few people we know. I saw Ada, and Sharon Katz.--Rem

I wrote Sharon this morning thanking her for coming. Hope you enjoyed it, I wrote, and learned a thing or two.

Also wrote Kenny Cobbs thanking him for standing outside on the corner directing people to Gratz College, Mandell Bldg.

Thanks also to Abigail for handing out the Compass. We had a table filled with the Compass but barely anyone took any!

The moment I got home I called Scott, who was at work, and said "I was fantastic!"

Here's my poem

MY MORNING COFFEE

Frankly, my dear, it's not so good.
But, truthfully, any coffee will do
as long as I drink it in this fragile
nicely-tapered glass cup that once
graced Helene's table in Maple Glen. 

My tiny shapely unarthritic fingers
curl themselves round the handle
I sip slowly in my gardenia-bright
kitchen, my painted clogs tap tapping
on the kitchen floor.

Breakfast I ate outside. Sitting in
the sun in my green plastic chair.
Contemplating, contemplating,
the success of This is My Brave

Each and every performer a gem
a diadem, who wore an invisible
golden crown. 


***

Let's give Ed Quinn, our director, a standing ovation now!!!
Bravo Bravo!'

***

Thanks for attending: Helen and Larry Kirschner, Bob Johnson (who looks like Willie Nelson), Randy (who may have gotten lost) and Marzina, who looked great as a redhead!

***
Ada and Rich gave me sweet-smelling flowers which are basking in the sun now on my living room window sill. They're getting along well with Martha's fancy Teapot and cup, tiny glass people Mom brought back from Belgium, my late brother David's ceramic bird house, two clay pots from my sister Donna, clay objects I made several years ago, a Replogle. And more.

Sarah said Ethan is coming home today. But then he'll be off again. The life of a successful jazz musician.

Here's my post on our Jazz Cruise, when Ethan was part of The Bad Plus.

Also couldn't help thinking about the late David Kime, who would have loved the program and been part of it were he still alive.

***
Photos were taken by Nicole Goss. View her website here. She was excellent and asked me if  I wanted to take a photo with my reading glasses around my neck.

Of course not! Good call Nicole!

***
After the program, Rich Fleisher drove us to the newly renovated Trenton Train Station, so Sarah could get home quickly. The four of us had a great time chatting, discussing the program. Many folks said the program was too long, others said they could have listened to much more.

Will let you know when it's posted on YouTube. Did I tell you I'm watching Designated Survivor on Netflix? The Fleishers watched it but said it got silly after a while.

***
Backstage.

The lot of us socialized in the green room, which was a sad-looking yellow. My new friend Nick Emeigh was a riot. We were discussing important things like knowing when to take our last pee before we went onstage.

I was trying to open a bottle of water and I said to Jennifer, a proud transgender, "I need a strong manly woman, to open this."

Trish was wearing a beautiful diaphanous dress with high heels. She was afraid she would trip.

I was wearing my new favorite lavender shirt.

Told the group I took it out of the drawer and it was totally fucking wrinkled.

They laffed.

What I did to unwrinkle it, I said, was to lie it on the carpet, and smooth it out.

It worked! Who wants to turn on the iron, tho I do have one.

We all voiced our concerns. I said I was afraid I'd get cold on the stage. I did not.

We all sat there - on stage - for a little over two hours while the performers told their incredible stories. People in the audience laffed and also cried.

I carried a hanky in my back pocket, made from a former sheet I had, and dabbed at my eyes.

At one point my face began to itch. It was impossible to ignore. When people started applauding, I scratched my nose.

One important suggestion is they should have turned on the lights in the audience at the end of the show.

***
Anything else, Ruthie?

Just drained my coffee. Loud buzzing on my street. They're still fixing the sewer mains.

What a perfect subject for a poem!

ROAD CLOSED

The orange for hazard sign
forbids us to drive down Sleighride Road.

Sewers, invented in the 14th century, was
a terrible time for the populace of Europe.

The plague ravaged Europe, decimating
the cities and countrysides.

Look, we all have to die, but some deaths
are more painful than others.

When I was ten, I prayed to God
"Please never let me die."

So far, so good.

***
Called up the Mandell Center of Gratz College this morning.

Told them I left my bean salad - O delicious bean salad - in their fridge and to just throw it away, including the Pyrex container.

You don't wanna come and take the Pyrex container?

No, I said, not mentioning it's a long drive there and the rubber top was cracking with age, unlike yours truly.

I got there via UBER. Nice driver, a widower, who talked the entire time!