A Sequidilla

1. Seguidilla began as a dance song. Here are the basic rules:
   7-line poem
   Syllable count for each line is 7-5-7-5-5-7-5
   One assonance rhyme between lines 2 and 4; another one between lines 5 and 7
   Pause between lines 4 and 5–usually an end stop
   Also, the tone or focus changes between lines 4 and 5 as well

Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions owned
make life livable
but holding on diligently
yields enjoyable.
Grab hold of the goal
and work the program for real,
healing rest for the soul.

Seguidilla, a dance or related poetic form

Every Day

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily. ~ Zig Ziglar

We eat daily...at least if our disease
takes a form other than anorexia.
Teeth brushing, hand washing, bathing,
changing underwear, taking prescriptions,
communicating with important people
in our homes, our lives, we understand daily.
What about addressing spiritual or psychic needs?
Should we presume it's less necessary
to pray, to meditate, to to look at our part
in interactions, to confront our disease
by using the tools, reading Recovery literature,
writing, staying in touch with others,
following a food plan, giving service,
sponsoring, being sponsored, doing actions
necessary to our Recovery. keeping secrets
not ours to tell... These we recommend daily.

Choosing Peace

Consciously choosing to be peaceful isn't always easy. In fact, inside we might feel agitated, at first. But acting as if you feel peace is a beginning. Give it a try today. Your attempt will be felt far and wide. ~ Karen Casey

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things
I cannot change... We pray this assuming
we cannot change what's going on.  We pray
choosing peace. In a way, we're saying Would that
I would change this right now. And turning loose
is not our choice by nature, not really our desire,
rather a choice that we know is right, surrender,
Your will, not mine be done. But add the other truth,
Ask and you will receive. So asking for peace is to be peaceful.
Try it. Your peace is contagious. Your peace places you
amid peace, making your world peace-full.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours.

The prompt was to choose a song you hear today and use that title for your work.

Submission. "the action or fact of accepting or
yielding to a superior force or to the will
or authority of another person."
Surrender. "cease resistance to an enemy
or opponent and submit to their authority."
Contract. "a written or spoken agreement,
especially one concerning employment, sales,
or tenancy, that is intended to be enforceable by law."
Every day is a day when we must carry 
the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. 
“How can I best serve Thee— 
Thy will (not mine) be done.” 
These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. 
We can exercise our will power along this line
all we wish. It is the proper use of the will.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours. 

Fibbing

A fibonacci, or a “fib” has nothing to do with truth or lies. It is a poem based on the fibonacci sequence in math: the number of syllables in each line of the poem is the sum of the previous two lines: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 …. Try writing a six-line fibbonaci, for a total of 20 syllables.

I'm
home
right here
with my kind
folks just like I am
sharing a common compulsion.

Come
in
welcome
we know you
because you are us
sharing our true hope recovery.

Come
home
again
we miss you
knowing your pain
and that you know you'll find hope here.

Twelve
Steps
simple
not easy
the path we travel
to sanity, recovery, peace.
 

Grateful for Darkness

Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.
~ Joan Chittister

The alleluia point. The "Praise ye the Lord" point.
Darkness is that point, and Chittister, a Benedictine sister
doesn't say "a" such point. She goes on to clarify
it's when we encounter darkness we believe
nothing is happening. Consider a seed, though.
Buried, in dirt...sometimes in shit...the seed comes alive,
finding itself fruitful, capable, reaching toward light
unseen, unknown before the darkness.
Alleluia! Growth...the most important part it seems
happens when absent light belies hope.

FROM MY PRISON

It is a prison: a body miserable in excess,
unable to cross legs, to sit on the floor...
then stand without mimicking a camel rolling to his feet.
It is a prison: terminal ugliness, gross, grotesque,
too lazy/tired/depressed for cleanliness, for style,
for participation in life. It is a prison,
sentenced to life without hope, staying there
day after day, year after year, decade after decade.
THEY say we hold the key, can in release
by changing, by willpower, by helping ourselves
but they don't know, can;'t understand,
if we could, we would. Then visitors come,
former inmates, people who understand,
who have been there, agree we cannot
but tell us if a Power that can, give us twelve keys
to unlock the doors, to walk free.

From Resentment to Plunder

For today’s prompt, write a poem using at least three of the following six words: relent, horrendous, artifact, lagoon, wobble, and plunder.
If you want extra credit (and who doesn’t), try using all six!

Once you've transgressed, there's no escape,
your conscience nags you relentlessly...
so you seek to motivate it to relent
using the horrendous device of substitution.
You reason you surely could not, would not
have started the spilt milk that by now
has morphed into a large lagoon. Maybe a tad was yours
but the egregious wrong was his, of course.
That slight may actually be fiction calcified
by your mind's secretions, but you staunchly
stand ob it no matter how it may wobble.Then you
work a fourth step, searchingly and fearlessly
seeking part, realizing at last how you have
stolen his valor and your righteous indignation
was merely hollow plunder. 

I Saw Your Reaction

When I spoke at your meeting

last week, I hope you didn't
feel like I stared at you.
I know my eyes lingered
there even as I aimed
for eye contact with everyone.
Pardon my saying so
but I felt you'd been there,
lived a life like mine. As I spoke
of a slender family where
my size was an embarrassment,
of doing most things well,
the exceptions getting the attention,
I believe you, too, entertained yourself,
not showing your need for companions,
and perhaps you chose a spouse
with whom you identified
not knowing his neediness matched, too.
I hope my story resonated,
giving you hope to work the program.
And know I care and am hoping we'll talk
when you feel the need to have what
I've found.

 

This Lap of the Race

In the race of our lives we have today, 
or rather this moment, and nothing more. 
Yesterday is past, and while we will in all probability 
move forward to tomorrow, and should prepare for it,
when it comes we can face it with a song only
if we have surrendered the control, the outcome,
and if we pick the path of principles of our program.
If our surrender is real, dips will be rare
and the norm will be to surge to joy.

What Lengths?

If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it--then you are ready to take certain steps.Alcoholics Anonymous page 58

It seems a given when we arrive
we're willing to go to any lengths.
Isn't it obvious? Haven't we already?
We had major surgery, had our jaws wired shut,
gave ourselves shots in our stomach,
had pins inserted in our ears,
were hypnotized, fasted, ate absurd diets,
caused ourselves to vomit what we ate,
starved ourselves, abused laxatives...
surely we'd already tried everything possible.
But take certain steps? Admit we're powerless?
Turn our whole lives over to some supernatural spirit?
List every time we ever did wrong, then tell someone?
Give up our habits, our ways of coping?
'fess up to everybody we ever hurt or cheated?
Hey, I never got my jaws wired. Maybe I should try that!!

Isolation

At the bitter end,

food is the companion,

the obsession, the all in all.

Don't look at me!

Don't see the fat, the pimples,

the disarray, the too-small clothes.

Just leave me alone with my binge.
 

Wait! It may be bitter, but it's not the end.

Make it the beginning, the go!

Find peace, serenity, companions

as you surrender obsession to Recovery.

 

You're Welcome

God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves. ~ Dwight L. Moody
You Pharisees and teachers of the Law of Moses are in for trouble! You’re nothing but show-offs. You lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. You won’t go in yourselves, and you keep others from going in. ~ Matthew 23:13-14 (Contemporary English Version)

Come full of doubts, uncertain there is a god
of any kind, in any religion. Come confident
in your blind faith in the strange proposition
that this universe originated in a cipher and
aimlessly rushes nowhere. Come believing
all is helpless, you can never have hope.
Come confident you understand, that you're smarter,
sharper than anybody else in the rooms,
but willing to listen, to try to understand.
You are welcome here. We offer you a program,
a path to serenity, to joy, to peace, to a life
beyond your wildest dreams.

But come to change us, to show us up, to scoff,
to prove us foolish...come full of yourself,
missionaries to the foolish sheep...
but with  a desire to stop eating compulsively,
and even you are welcome nonetheless.
You'll be miserable in the rooms, and we may be, too,
until you eventually listen, or you drift away
believing we're hopeless. Either way, Recovery will happen here.
You're welcome to stay and see.

Vice Free

I don’t have any vices right now. It’s a very uncomfortable place to be. ~ Jhe T

Do you feel guilty for being righteous?
Does guilt feel so natural, the lack of it
brings discomfort? Martin Luther King, Jr. said,
"The Negro needs the white man
to free him from his fears.
The white man needs the Negro
to free him from his guilt."
With fears and guilt we feel natural.
With neither, something's wrong!I heard an old song today,
"Heaven Is a Place on Earth."
Ir's true, and that place is, maybe as it says,
where someone you love is. But romance
is not required. What is needed is the spirit of love,
people living Recovery. It's there,
a wondrous place even when it's an uncomfortable
place to be!

A Terrorist of a Higher Power

Food is a theorist higher power; it’s a tyrant is what it is. ~ Miranda O'D.

 

Al Qaeda have admitted they can no longer compete with fast food restaurants when it comes to killing Americans and will halt current terrorist activities to open their own burger chain. ~ Mostly Legitimate News Network, 06 August 2010

We all have a higher power, the source of help to which we turn
in times of crisis. If the solution to all and any problem in life
is food, that is functioning as your Higher Power! Most of us
who eventually ended up in Overeaters Anonymous learned...
eventually that HP was narcissistic, sadistic,
the furtherest thing from real help, a reliable source of guidance,
of logic...a total train-wreck. How marvelous to finally rebel,
dump the imposter and find a helpful HP, one worth our surrender,
our reliance, our trust. Thank HP for O.A., thank O.A. for HP!!

Fear Not

When fear enters in, I remind myself that God did not give me the spirit of fear. In my quiet time I hear, “Fear not!” ~ Voices of Recovery (Kindle Locations 3760-3761).

 

Paul told his protege Timothy,
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity,
but of power, love, and self-discipline."

Fear is a small word that "somehow touches about
every aspect of our lives....an evil and corroding

thread," the fabric of our existence was shot throughwith it. God speaks to us in a still, quiet voice,

and frequently what he says is, "Fear not!"

I Want Expansion

As you set a financial goal, it is not only about the expansion for yourself; it's about the expansion of all of those who are involved in that which you are about. In other words, it creates this nucleus, this machine, that allows so many to begin to thrive along with you. It's much bigger than finances. ~ Abraham

My goal is not to expand my wealth,

been there, have reached a comfort level.

But I want to claim expansion for my life

and "for those who are involved

in that which I am about."

Who's that? family, workplace folk,

my publishing, my writing

and those who read it,

organizations I've joined,

their purposes, those they reach.

I want expansion for the world,

and I accept that it can begin with me

and the expansion of my heart.

 

Welcome Home

Keep coming back, they tell us.
And if that means to meetings,
then right on! But too many of us find recovery,
then life gets in the way, or holidays,
or company, being it or having it
and meetings get skipped, recovery on hold
and we keep coming back to reestablish,
to repair the damage. When will we understand
those works we hear and repeat each meeting...
Welcome to Overeaters Anonymous, Welcome home!
Let's just stay in Recovery this time!

Second Life

You have two lives. The second one begins when you realize you only have one. ~ Confucius

 It surely feels as though when you reach the rooms of Recovery
as though you've failed miserably, can't even do
what everybody can...just exercise a little willpower,
grow up and finally follow the rules, act as though  you're responsible.
But soon you come to understand it's a disease, not your fault,
that by not trying to stop what you quite obviously can't stop,
you have to change your focus, get honest, look at who you are,
what you've done to yourself, to others, and admit it to yourself,
to another person and to God as you understand god,
be willing to change, face those you've hurt and do what's possible
to fix it, surrender every day, live one day at a time, tell others
what you've found, and live in peace with you, with others,
and with the world, you've begun finally to live life
as you've always wished it could be!

 

I'd Paint My Life

A searching and fearless moral inventory.
Many of us can best write an inventory 
in words, listing who we resent,
what happened, our part of the interaction,
and what of our principle needs are affected.
That works fine for word people like me
but ours is a program addressed to individuals.
How many of us express better in images?
If I were one, I'd draw a body surrounded
by vignettes showing Daddy saying,
"Don't be sorry, don't do it."
One picture would be the woman I wanted to sue,
the deception, and finally my understanding
of my attitude and her response.
I'd picture my lies, my dishonesty,
and why I feel that need.
How many pictures can you sketch in your mind,
and is that the best way for your own
searching and fearless moral inventory?
 

From Her Burrow

Home is her sanctum,
a private retreat nobody enters,
only she ever steps through the door.
If someone appeared seeking admittance,
she would be mortified if they saw
the detritus of sugar binges, of chips,
of wrappers of all types.
If no one sees, she can pretend
she doesn't wear the evidence
for the world to see when she
pokes her nose into the world
playing the perfect image of a mouse.

Twitter and the Media

Tradition 10.  Overeaters Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the OA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

So, they run a fellow born a British subject,
a war hero, led a battle that shattered the Native American coalition,
elected at a time of dramatic unrest in the country,
he was sworn in, spoke in bitter winter weather,
dressed as for an inside address, he spoke two hours
in his inaugural address and died of pneumonia
a month and a day later, followed...when they stopped arguing
by a man who went from states rights before being
"and Tyler too" to a nationalist with scruples
estranged from both major parties.

A century before the Big Book, no Eleventh Tradition existed.
But if it had, bickering about the positions,
the morality of politicians  would have violated it,
and discussion of controversy would have been silenced.
Nine years ago I attended a single O.A. meeting in San Antonio,
and a careless comment, followed by, "Can I say that here?"
will forever cross my mind when I think of O.A. in that city
where now I know a number of fine folks steeped in the Traditions.

The Joy of Being One

...For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen. ~ Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (p. 99). AA World Services, Inc. Kindle Edition.

Surrender is the path  to Victory, to Recovery,
to being one with the Universe. The answer is
to put off your old self, which is being corrupted
by its deceitful desires, by life before surrender,
by making our drug of choice...sugar for me...
in the place of ultimate authority, the power
to which you habitually turn when life's stress dominate,
but there is a solution, easy Steps, surrender to Joy,
undeserved love in which we can dwell through all storms.

Give Rather Than Get

...Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted— to understand, than to be understood— to love, than to be loved. ~ Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (p. 99). AA World Services, Inc. Kindle Edition.

As you sit around a Christmas tree,
or some other gift[exchanging event,
where is your attention. When you were a child,
probably on the stack before you.
As a parent, probably on your child's pile.
It seems with maturity the glee of others
warms your heart, you open your own
because it's courteous. If the gift given
is comfort, understanding, or love
isn't it true you obtain as much of the sensation
as the titular recipient?
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort 
than to be comforted — to understand, 
than to be understood— to love, than to be loved.

I May Bring

...that where there is error, I may bring truth— that where there is doubt, I may bring faith— that where there is despair, I may bring hope—... ~ Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (p. 99). AA World Services, Inc. Kindle Edition.

Look at the pairings.
error and truth
doubt and faith
despair and hope.
On word pairings if I were asked
he opposite of truth is false, not error.
So. is error false? Isn't the difference
intention? Error is not deliberate.
It may be wrong but not calculated,
merely not hitting the mark.
Best intentions gone awry?
Relying on self rather than surrendering.
My will, not Thine?
What of doubt rather than faith?
My will again?
The third pair, despair and hope...
We know despair was the best we could do
on our own, without surrender. Before hope.
Before a Power that Can.
Lord, make me a channel of thy peace— t
hat where there is hatred, I may bring love—
that where there is wrong,
I may bring the spirit of forgiveness—
that where there is discord,
I may bring harmony—
that where there is error,
I may bring truth—
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith—
that where there is despair, I may bring hope—

Not my will, God, Yours.

A Channel of Peace

“Lord, make me a channel of thy peace— that where there is hatred, I may bring love— that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness— that where there is discord, I may bring harmony— Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (p. 99). AA World Services, Inc. Kindle Edition.

Make me a channel? It has nothing to do with groove or furrow...or does it?
It; bot a frequency on radio or television...or is it?...
Can this be a person who conveys thoughts or energy
from a source outside the person's body or conscious mind.
speaking for nonphysical beings or spirits?
People who are loving thinking good thoughts naturally
can create or facilitate the flow of peace, the trend toward love,
setting aside of bitterness, and encourage reconciliation, harmony.
We've all tried to find a channel on a well-populated  cable network,
a decent radio station driving in open spaces a long way from home...
we know how helpful knowing a number to choose
can bring order from chaos. And a clairvoyant?
Nobody has sat long on the rooms of recovery
without having someone else  say exactly what we needed to hear.
Is that not a way of channelling our Higher Power?

Action and Response

How does belief become proven?
When I offer myself to God
to build with me, to do with me/
as he chooses, how do I know he accepts?
Moses raised his staff, the sea parted.
When the Hebrews couldn't drink bitter water at Marah
Moses threw a tree into the the well and they quenched their thirst.
Snake-bit people had only to look at a fiery serpent and
snakebites were not lethal. Fortified walls at Jericho
collapsed with marching, trumpet sounding, and the Arc carried.
Elisha sent instructions to Naaman for healing,
who resented the lack of personal response, the simplicity
of instructions. but when he gave in and did it, his leprosy healed,
In each case, the good came from action. Cause and effect, trust and grace.
The saying of the prayer is enough, but with Naaman and Gideon,
we know God is patient. If it takes something else than merely asking
to convince me I deserve the result, God is patient. My action need be enough
so I believe the answer possible, and when it is, then it's enough for God
who was always willing to give it. Thank God!

Resentments

What do I resent? The half of the population who disagree with me
on current events, those who aren't careful to not convey their opinions
every single conversation. I resent those who treat me just as I offer
to be treated but didn't really mean it. Those who think no more of me than I do myself.
My body who took what I gave it all those years and now acts abused.
My procrastination...chronic low-intensity fear. My holding the controls,
refusing to release them to ANYBODY including a Power greater than me.
I resent me. I'm angry that I can't live Recovery as well as others seem to,
at comparing my insides to the outsides of others. God, grant me
the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom...willingness...to know the difference. Your Will not mine
be done!!!

Affirmative Action

Step Three calls for affirmative action, for it is only by action that we can cut away the self-will which has always blocked the entry of God— or, if you like, a Higher Power— into our lives. Faith, to be sure, is necessary, but faith alone can avail nothing. We can have faith, yet keep God out of our lives. Therefore our problem now becomes just how and by what specific means shall we be able to let Him in? ~ Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (p. 34). AA World Services, Inc. Kindle Edition.

If you placed a want ad for your personal
Power Greater than Yourself, what — Who —
would you describe? Could you start by seeking
affirmative action? an action or policy
favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination,
especially in relation to employment or education;
positive discrimination. What would that mean?
Hey, God, look here! See me! Pay attention to me!
I don't feel like I'm worthy, God, who could like me?
I need you to be willing to try. No, not just try.
Yoda said, "Do or do not, there is no try."
See me, pay attention to me...
even  when I feel worthless,miserable, useless.
Don't let me drown in self-loathing ,
love me until I can understand you do,
you can, until I know if you can do it,
I'm actually worth loving, until I can believe
I have worth, and know that worth makes me worthy
of joy, of happiness, of peace. That's the affirmative action
I need ti believe, to be someone who has really taken
Step Three and cannot fail to recover!