“Everyone has their Vietnam” excerpt from At Hell’s Gate by Claude A. Thomas

 

And I would say that while we have to talk we don’t have to be foiled by limitations. Never a good idea to push too hard or go to fast. Some people can write books, speak up in public. Others may be able to do so in anonymous group settings or with a close friend or loved one. Maybe you start by talking to an empty room, alone on a forest walk or in your car? Or maybe you too will find that weeping into a pillow is the starting point. Where ever and how ever – the important thing is to begin. To speak truth, begin where you can and as you are able. Keep going at your own pace. The benefits will be amazing. With best wishes and every respect. – PD Lyons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shifting the focus from trauma to compassion

ACEs Too High

Dr. Arnd Herz

Dr. Arnd Herz, a self-described champion for ACEs science, would like nothing more than to witness a greater appreciation of how widespread adverse childhood experiences are. Herz, a pediatrician and director of Medi-Cal Strategy for the Greater Southern Alameda Area for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, would also like to encourage more people in health care to engage in a trauma-informed care approach, a change in practice that he says not only benefits patients, but also health care providers and their staff.

“It makes so much sense,” say Herz. “This is why I went into medicine. I don’t want to just click off diagnoses, but create relationships and help people by understanding them better, and trauma-informed care is just a way to bring compassion back into the care that we do.”

For the uninitiated, a trauma-informed approach includes an awareness that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are common, knowing…

View original post 872 more words

Why we like The Galway Review….

Pdlyons's Explorations

http://thegalwayreview.com/

Five poems by Pd Lyons

Pd Lyons work has appeared in many magazine and zines through out the world. two collections of work has been published by Lapwing Belfast. originally from the US has been a resident of Ireland for years now. For more information please visit pdlyons on face book or blog at : https://pdlyons.wordpress.com/

Five poems by Pd Lyons

Anarchist

black beret
rich with pleats n buttons
green down to the floor coat
wait in line for the coffee machine
young women at the nearest table
quartet study group
ponder the ability of children
to reach the alphabet
good crows of the Spanish arch
some crumbs left for the sparrows
through 100% UV protection
waves the open ocean
new world
across the bay
somehow the difference now has come
with out effort
and all those stories never told
up in tobacco
cross the causeway
reach out into the…

View original post 288 more words

Two poems and three songs for my Father Donald R Lyons Nov 21. 1925 – Jan 26, 2003.

Pdlyons's Explorations

DAD

The swans out in the field

Their secrets not revealed

Passing into silent flight are they

Perhaps their subtle sigh

Stifles some deeper cry

As they know you’ll be leaving much too soon

Walking down the lane

The filly foals refrain

Their running is the sound of falling rain

Are they restless from the summer?

Or somehow do they know

You’ll not stay to seen them fully grown

By the fairy mounds of old

The pock marked GPO

Cross the Boyne to bang your head on spiral stone

See the wonders down at Fore

And the ancient seat of kings on Tara hill

Now sitting by the fire, music’s playing’ low

Guess I’ll raise a glass or two before I go

Though it’s to an empty chair not your smiling face I stare

(Yet) whenever that door slams I still hope to see you there.

And sitting here I…

View original post 721 more words

Soon Like Crows poem by pd lyons

Pdlyons's Explorations

 

Soon Like Crows

and would I know
the winter
still sliding down
silvering the window
soft whispers
smoke secrets
between
the kitchen fire
and all those winter fires gone before
each ghost arrives upon the gale
welcomed here beside the hearth
each breath of my own
rare and gifted by such drifters
visible in smoke
audible in flame
never alone

 

wrote this the first winter having moved back to Ireland from the states. we were living in Galway a small town called Barna on Galway Bay. Galway Review was kind enough to publish this along with four others. for me the ghosts of Ireland like those of all places are busiest during the winter months.

http://thegalwayreview.com/2012/11/13/five-poems-by-pd-lyons/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barna

 

View original post

the body has its own karma –

THE BODY HAS ITS OWN KARMA

paris by pd lyons