Hi,
I’m new here, I was diagnosed with Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) back in February and have finished 6 of my 8 cycles of chemo. I’m now well enough to enjoy doing something ‘normal’ which for me is doing craft projects! I love making handmade cards and embroidery pictures.
I would love to see photo’s of any one else’s crafty projects. (apologies if there is a link already started).
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A great big welcome to our forum @ClareC
How lovely for you to enjoy making handmade cards and embroidery pictures and what a talent to have.
I hope others will share their experiences for you.
Please do keep posting how you are doing and enjoy
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Hello there @ClareC, welcome to the forum! I’m really sorry to read of your diagnosis with Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Sounds like treatment has been going well and it’s so great that you’re here to share this lovely artistic idea. I’d love to see your crafty creations @ClareC!
In a former life I was a practicing artist, but tend to make stuff now more for pleasure and to document my life, mostly writing and photography these days. In fact, it was always about documentation of self but making stuff these days feels more natural, with no capitalistic expectations attached.
Expressing ourselves can be as simple as a short poem or a quick photo. Themes emerge later upon reflection, I find. Occasionally I combine writing and walking into what I call a hiku—a haiku or some prose conjured up whilst out hiking, often with a matching photo.
So with that in mind, and reflecting my own diagnosis with and ongoing survival from Polycythaemia vera (PV), I’d like to share some writing that may resonate with others—or may not, it’s rather pretentious!
I Am A Redwood
Cut down clumsily
Saw-milled
Sliced apart long-ways
Sequoia planks
Housing shingled cabins
The height of Victorian elegance
Falling down
Fired up
Twinned
Doubled over
Still
Regrown as fairy rings
Dancing around the ghost of an elder
First-growth
Burning resilience
Fiery regeneration
Coniferous silence
Bent to firestorms
Drinking up the June gloom
All year long
Evergreen
Red mulch
Facing the sea
Stepped rows
Seeing the sun set
Setting root
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Oh, @Duncan you kept that one quiet, you certainly have been hiding your light under a bushel.
Absolutely beautiful with the matching photo as well, thank you so much
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Ha yes very true dear @Erica! Thank you for your compliments 
Looking forward to seeing how others express their artistic selves.
Here’s a haiku (“hiku”) that makes me think of you @Erica!
Lithe Deer
In awe of these deer
with their sierra vista,
lithely passing by.
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Wow! @Duncan . What amazing words you have written and as @Erica says the photo is amazing too. Do you have redwood trees near to where you live? Please share more with us if you feel comfortable and thank you so much @ClareC for introducing this topic. Warm wishes Willow x
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Oh, Thank you so much @Duncan
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Hi @Erica and @Duncan. Do you know how to share a photo on here? I am no good with technology. Thanks so much. Willow x
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Aww you two! Thank you dear @Willow, compliments from such a beautiful writer means a lot. I’m fortunate to live on the foggy coast of Northern California where redwoods flourish—we even have one in our next door neighbour’s garden to vicariously enjoy!
I’d love to read more of your writing too, but understand your current predicament. Hope you’re well on the mend 
In the box where we type, there’s a row of icons along the top. Clicking on the picture frame icon in the centre should upload a photo (see attached screenshot).
Just noticed we can also drag and drop a photo from our desktop into these typing boxes if using a computer.
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Thank you @Duncan. Continuing the tree theme here is a poem I wrote about a year ago. I created a picture to accompany it but it cannot be downloaded for some reason. Apologies for that. I’m sure you would be able to do it, Duncan, but for now here are the words. Warm wishes Willow x
THE FINAL LEAF
As the final leaf
On an autumn tree
It is fully aware
Of its destiny.
As the nights turn cold
And the days shorten
The time it has left
Is very important.
Watching the other leaves
Fall to the ground,
Their colours turning
From green to brown,
It clings on perilously
Through the icy blast
Wondering if today
Will be its last?
All it has known
Is the mother tree
But now it is facing
Its mortality.
Preparing itself
To finally let go
And join its companions
On the earth below.
A few months ago
They were tiny buds
But as they decay
They form valuable mulch.
Providing insulation
And enriching the soil
The ideal conditions
For springtime renewal.
Nature’s cycle
Of true surrender
A process that starts
In late September.
Only the brave
Can comprehend
As one life begins
Another must end.
It would be odd
If, when April comes
This final leaf
Was hanging on.
Letting go has taught it
An invaluable lesson
Sacrificing its life
For the next generation.
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Thank you @Duncan for the beautiful picture of cherry blossom and your words to accompany it. We seem to have a nature theme going on. It’s lovely for me because I can’t get outside to appreciate it at the moment. Warm wishes Willow x
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Ahhhh @Willow!!! This incredible natural imagery feels very close to home, so beautifully put. To be a leaf aware of its limited lifetime in the grand scheme of things and still be content… well, I hope to feel that sense of readiness before my own surrender 
Thank you for sharing! Have you published? I’d love to read more.
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Thank you @Duncan for your kind words. I would really like to read more of your poems. There is a booklet of about twenty five of my poems available via this link Poems of Hope – Kintsugi Hope
However you would need to make an arrangement regarding postage as they are based in the UK. Thank you for your encouragement. Warm wishes Willow x
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Oh wow how amazing! I’ll order your book to be delivered to a loved one in the UK to be sent onwards to me, thank you for sharing it @Willow. It looks beautiful and handmade.
In honour of sharing beautiful published writing regarding living through cancer, may I recommend Chimera by Brad Buchanan. He led a writing group I attended and shared some of his poetry which really impressed me. Maybe a little visceral but sensitively written.
I wonder who else on the forum might share their creativity?
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Thank you @Duncan, I shall definitely investigate his book. You could say that my poetry is quite visceral also. I do enjoy reading other people’s poems. Warm wishes Willow
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Willow and Duncan my goodness what talented writers you are. Such beautifully written poems. ClareC sorry to hear about your diagnosis of Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). I also really enjoy crafts. When I was younger I also did embroidery but not anymore due to arthritis in the fingers and eyesight not as good as it was. I crochet a lot and also make things with my sewing machine. I am not technical so sorry I do not know how to post pictures. My projects at the moment are I am making a corner to corner crochet blanket for my granddaughters 2nd birthday with a picture of an owl sitting on a moon. My children got me some Tunisian crochet hooks and books on the stitches for christmas. So I am crocheting squares and stitching them together as I learn this new technique. Warm wishes and happy stitching. Liz 59
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Thank you for your kind comments @Liz59. That crochet blanket you are making sounds wonderful. Thank you for sharing. It’s really interesting to hear about each other’s creativity! Warm wishes Willow x
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