I struggle every day to remain well,
It's an obstacle course, of sorts,
Yesterday, I was ko'd, knocked out,
But before the count of 10 I was 
Up again, fighting to recover my balance, poise. On my toes
I rise to the challenge. Today,  I Am fasting, The best detox I know,
Hoping I will recover, in time 
To watch a film, have a meal,
Get up from my bed. Be well.
It's been like this since cancer struck.
Illness has liberated me from any vestiges of Arrogance and pomposity
When I can walk, I look at people's
Faces and wonder what crosses
They themselves must carry.
The secret is to see myself as lucky
My family, my poetry, music and study
All insulate me from the demons of despair
But, on wild nights or windy, I wonder
Where we'd be without this fall into mortality:
A pre-Lapsarian paradise where those we love will never die
And nightingales will, forever, sing to their full-Throated ease beneath the truest and bluest
Of high blue skies.