Georgia O’Keeffe

 

Nov 15,2019
It’s the birthday of artist Georgia O’Keeffe , born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin (1887). In 1923, she said, “One day seven years ago I found myself saying to myself — I can’t live where I want to — I can’t go where I want to go — I can’t do what I want to — I can’t even say what I want to … I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to.”

 

When I visited the home and studio of Georgia, I found her determination to see by touch,

to go macro to fill a gigantic canvas with one flower,

to negotiate to share her art with her lover,

to be thorny in a desert.

and colorful in a barren land!

At Albany Medical Center

Negotiate

power nurse
at the helm

subs a-watching …
for some scraps of power
drifting down
scoop them up
wear them like a badge
for the poking order of the day

Patients tethered
to IV’s, toilet hats, measurements, needles, hourly pin-pricks
chained in between gated beds
waiting for Doctor signatures that switch
treatments toward a healthy discharge.

no supplements are allowed from home
and an attempt is made to lock them up
If they should assert themselves

patients need to comply
nurses need to be patient
together they have to give and take;
give trust; take hope

negotiate!