Caregiving In Five Lines by Ejourneys

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2 Caregiving In Five Lines by Ejourneys Thank you for purchasing this book! All sales benefit Caregiving.com by Ejourneys for all photos and text. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law. Published by Ejourneys Published in the United States of America

3 Caregiving In Five Lines by Ejourneys I posted my first Caregiving.com blog entry in February My story is on the site. That site, and the community it nurtures thanks to Denise Brown, has saved my sanity. It has helped me live a life that is better and healthier for both myself and my caree through the simple yet profound acts of connecting with others. This book began as a series of blog posts under the Community Caregiving Journal. The poems take their one-word titles from Denise s prompts. They are written in a form called the Gogyohka. Invented in 1957 by Japanese poet Enta Kusakabe, the Gogyohka is verse written in five lines. More about the form can be found at The poems accompany photographs that I have taken over the years. Bob s (@rainbow on Caregiving.com) photo-poems inspired me to create my own. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for purchasing this book and for supporting Caregiving.com.

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34 Photos (neighborhood shots are in Citrus County, Florida) - 1 Cover: Clouds photographed from Liberty Park in Inverness, Florida. Deadline: Jupiter and Venus, photographed from our driveway. Ahead: Leafhopper on my car roof, about a mile from home. Miss: Reflection in our water barrel. Again: Digital collage combining photos of white and pink portulaca growing on our back porch, yellow wildflowers found on a grassy median, filaments from Spanish moss, and shed cat fur. Behind: Garden snail on the stucco wall of our house. Burnt: Sunset in Inverness, Florida. Irritating: Retention pond in our neighborhood. Under: A rock I found on the street. Fight: Beach sunflowers growing outside our local library. Celebrate: White ibises (and a single cattle egret) at a neighborhood retention pond. Better: Rainbow photographed from inside my car, parked at a local strip mall. Brink: Mural at the Snooze A.M. Eatery in Denver, Colorado. Great: Fireworks display at Liberty Park in Inverness, Florida. Step: Daytona Beach, Florida. Upset: An egg my partner/caree cooked in the microwave. Identity: Reflected building photographed from inside the Hyatt in Tampa, Florida.

35 Photos (neighborhood shots are in Citrus County, Florida) - 2 Green: An oak tree in our yard, grown from an acorn my partner picked up. Tomorrow: Digital tweaking of my father s watch. Yours: The street where we live in early morning fog. Alone: Rising Moon photographed from our house. Energy: Woolen poncho. Shoulder: Cuban tree frog in our mailbox. Lake: Great Egret at Lake Henderson in Inverness, Florida. Noise: The meditation chime I use to avoid startling my partner. Storm: Clouds seen during a neighborhood walk. Shadow: Stone angels at the Highlander Café in Crystal River, Florida. Change: A fossil in a rock my partner had picked up off the street. Define: Digital collage of a male Blue Ceraunus butterfly and a watercolorized shot of a spillway, both photographed at a local retention pond. Frame: Old telephone wires in a box being replaced in the neighborhood. Plain: Pigeon feather picked up off the street and my maternal grandmother s marblebase lamp. Ejourneys cares for her partner, who has multiple sclerosis that acts like traumatic brain injury.

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