Podcast Poetry Vic Errington

Vera's website - authorverastasny.com



Order Vera's book 'Being Heard: Healing the Voices of Trauma - A Collection of Writings (not an affiliate link)



Welcome back to podcast poetry live.



I heard about Vera Stasny from a close friend and business partner of mine, Laine K. Laine interviewed her long-time friend Vera on her youtube channel Laine’s Domain, and I worked on the original recording as a video editor. Feel free to watch that interview. There’s a link to it in the show notes.



I was totally blown away by Vera’s life story. Here was a woman who faced trauma basically from birth after her parents moved from Czechoslovakia to London, England at the outbreak of world war 2. She experienced the horror of the London Blitz and took the psychological scars with her when they moved to America after the war.



At a young age Vera was then diagnosed with cancer. As if that wasn’t enough to contend with other illnesses arose as she battled to survive. She did survive after taking the responsibility of her health away from the medical establishment and into her own hands.



But Vera has had one of those lives that are full of major challenges – physical, emotional, and material. Did she succumb to the pressure? No. Vera is a true warrior, not just looking after herself but showing compassion and giving practical help to others in need.



As well as working her way to the top of the finance industry in the US, she was also a teacher for many years. After retirement despite ongoing health issues Vera goes skiing most days of the week with a determination to enjoy life and make life better for others.



And guess what? Vera wrote a book containing astonishing writings, including poems delving deep into the experience of trauma – both her own and that suffered by others. The book is called Being Heard – Healing the voices of trauma – a collection of writings - And she gave me permission to present it here on Podcast Poetry Live! Thank you, Vera!



I present three of her poems today. The first is called Blitzcrieg – and it paints a vivid picture of her war experience as a toddler. The second ‘If I died before you’ is a poem about love, and the fear of loss. There is so much insight in that poem. The third and last of Vera’s poetry I present you with today is called ‘Second chance’ – hearing this verse is a must for anyone who has health challenges and doesn’t know where to turn for help. She tells you how it is.



I want to thank Vera Stasny for this opportunity to read and voice her incredible work. Thanks Vera.



Okay. Let’s go for a journey courtesy of Vera Stasny, one of life’s inspirational survivors. But she didn’t just survive. She grabbed life with both hands, ran with it, and enjoys it to the full.



Okay, let’s start with Blitzcrieg.

A poem by Pascale Petit called Treesitter started it - led me to explore what someone called Julia Butterfly Hill, experienced and achieved. She lived in a Redwood tree, 200 feet high, for 738 days. The corporations tried to shake her out of that tree, but she was way too powerful for that. That was a revelation for me.



How Pascale Petit was able to impart a little of what Julia experienced using words, so effectively, in verse was another revelation. I had to respond to her.



Pascale's work can be read in the Transcript. My response to her is also there.

'I hope if Edward is 'looking down' he won't be offended by my possibly irreverent use of his creation.' The painting was actually unfinished when he died in 1898, and currently hangs in the V&A museum in Kensington, having been given it by his wife, Lady Burne-Jones, in 1909.



The painting is itself based on a poem as this extract from the V&A website notes ~



The triumphal procession of Love was a common theme in Medieval and Renaissance literature and art. However, the specific basis of Burne-Jones's composition in The Car of Love is a long allegorical poem by the 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch, the Trionfior Triumphs. The poet has a vision of a number of victorious pageants or triumphal processions, in which historical, Biblical or mythological figures take part. The first triumph is that of Love over the human heart; the next is Chastity, which triumphs over Love; followed in turn by Death, Fame, Time, and finally Eternity, which triumphs over all.

Back in the eighties I spent a while on the streets, homeless and out of my head. Part of that time was on the Whitechapel Road in East London. Despite the circumstances, and amongst the dark memories, I still have a few light ones.



I used to love hearing the call to prayer from the local Mosque. I had never been religious back then but that sound, that voice, singing from the heart took me away from my self-inflicted hardship every time I heard it.



I also remember the camaraderie amongst the homeless, drinkers and the generally lost. This poem recounts a wonderful example of how we often looked after each other, when we were able to.



I never met the man I was told helped me out - Jimmy Boyle. But I'll never forget him.

This is from one of those memories that never seem to fade. It's about the time my mother miscarried, my response to witnessing the aftermath,, and its effect on me as a seven-year-old.

Welcome to my reading of a poem that I wrote about aspects of the vision quest I undertook in early summer. The whole process took 12 days, but the period I wrote about is called the Solo, which involves four days and nights alone in the wilderness, with no food, but adequate water. Just you (or in this case me) and nature.



Nature turned out to be a mirror that forced me to face myself at depths I’d never plumbed before. It can be a process of healing and revelation. It certainly was for me.



There may be one or two parts of it that need clarification, so let me point the way -



Vixana's mist

Each morning Vixana would emerge from her cave and climb to the top of the tor where she would scan the surrounding countryside looking for unwary travellers ... When the traveller came to that part of the track which skirted the bog that lay at the foot of Vixen Tor, Vixana would wave her stick and call up a thick, clinging mist which would envelope the traveller ...



Image of Vixen Tor, Dartmoor, UK



Apophis

Some stories, probably later Roman retellings, describe Apophis as an enormous golden snake that was miles long, and who tried to swallow the sun every night as Ra traversed the underworld ...



Lyme (disease) caught from ticks



The Clocked stopped - a poem by Emily Dickinson