The "thin " time of the year..

My husband and I refer the the season following Thanksgiving until late March as "the Thin Time of year. In ancient days it was believed that during the days of shortened sunlight and increased cold the veil between the physical world and the spiritual world "thinned out", thus allowing people to see the non physical world ; and in some cases actually "slip" through to that other world without much prompting.
If you have ever worked with the mentally ill, or on a psychiatric ward, or have family with emotional problems you know this all too well. A running joke amoung staffers at the residential treatment center where I worked for many years was"if it's not a full moon, it's the holidays!" This was our way of explaining the insanity that cropped up so horrifically during the festive season. There are probably many good reasons why people get struck down by depression during this time, or go psychotic, and just get a little "wiggy" We miss loved ones that have passed on, we feel incredible pressure to spend money we do not have, we are cold and sunlight starved...but I love the image of the "thin time"better than a scientific explanation. Perhaps we also hear those voices calling us from the other side, whispering the pleasures of madness or the dark secrets of life's futility. Maybe the scent of a sweeter afterlife mingles in the air around us and tempts us to step over. We need our courage during this time, our commitment to keep on trying and hope that tommorrow the sun will shine brighter. Our friends and families and our passions keep as grounded until spring can fill us with new life again.

As a licensed social worker, I have many years of watching and hearing people struggle with mental illness. For that reason it shows up frequently in my writings, and poses guestions to my readers about life in this world as we know it. I am particularly fascinated with the decisions people make in critical junctions in their life that change things forever for them in a negative or positive way..The catalysts of change so to speak. So, here are some of my poems of people and "the thin time" Some old, some newer,some weird...but written to make you think...

Try writing about social issues in the people that you see around you and brings large issues to light with specific stories


Decision In Philadelphia

A crumpled leaf
she choose to fall.
beneath society's gaze.

Pulling herself together ,
in a multi -colored billiard ball
she laid down
bent in an awkward fetal cur.l

Asleep upon the sidewalk of 41st and Pine
Nobody exactly knows
"WHY?",
in a moment's hesitation,
she preferred concrete to going on.

11/83


The Obsession

He looked up at the luggage rack
that hung above him on the train,
BARS ABOVE HIS HEAD.
the guardrail by the stairs,
beneath his hand,
BARS OF LEAD.
Hidden in peoples mittens, scarves and three peice suits
BARS OF PURPLE. BLUE AND RED
BARS OF BONES - within his chest,
made him try to hold his breath;
Seeing BARS in mirrors, walls and ceilings,
he turned around and fled
Then one day he was convinced the bars were
growing IN HIS HEAD.

So, he swan dove out the 8th floor window
and when the bobbies found him,
both the bars and he were dead.

1/82

Unseen Pain

These tears ,
like the memories of seconds passed,
are unharnessed one by one -
to paint a momentary glint of glass on cheek,
trace my jugular with my pain,
and hide with intimate knowledge
in the clevage of my breasts.

2/85