Channel

by Earthwalker | Feb 14, 2008 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Word | 0 comments

by Floyd Skloot

In time the fork my life took
as illness changed its course
will wander to the main stream
and there below the long waterfalls
and cataracts I will begin to rush
to the place I was going from the start.
I imagine looking back to see
the silted mass where a huge bend
holds sunlight in a net of evergreen
and the sky unable to bear its own
violet brilliance a moment longer.
Out of shadows where the channel
crumbles comes the raucous sound
a great blue heron makes when startled.
Scent of peppermint rides breezes
from the valley and I catch hints
of a current beneath the surface
just as darkness unfurls.
There I imagine what was lost
coming together with what was gained

Floyd Skloot’s memoir In the Shadow of Memory won the 2004 PEN USA Literary Award, the Independent Publishers Book Award, and the Oregon Book Award, and was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and the PEN Award for the Art of the Essay. Its sequel, A World of Light, was a NY Times Book Review Editors Choice Selection and is due out in paperback in fall 2008. His six collections of poetry include The End of Dreams (LSU Press, 2006), a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize; Approximately Paradise (Tupelo Press, 2005), winner of the Pacific NW Booksellers Association Book Award; and the forthcoming Selected Poems: 1970-2005 (Tupelo Press, 2008) and The Snow’s Music (LSU Press, 2008). He is also the author of four novels, most recently Patient 002 (Rager, 2007). Skloot’s awards include two Pushcart Prizes and the inclusion of his work in The Best American Essays 1993 and 2000, The Best American Science Writing 2000 and 2003, The Best Spiritual Writing 2001. He lives in Portland, OR. view his website

Author

Earthwalker

Earthwalker is the username that PT founder Julie Genser created for her online interactions so many years ago when first creating Planet Thrive.

Julie's (Earthwalker's) life was derailed over twenty years ago when she had a very large organic mercury exposure after she naively used a mouth thermometer to measure the temperature of just-boiled milk while making her very first pizza at home. The mercury instantly expanded into a gas form and exploded out the back of the thermometer right into her face. Unaware that mercury was the third most neurotoxic element on Earth, Julie had no idea she had just received a very high dose of a poisonous substance.

A series of subsequent toxic exposures over the next few years -- to smoke from two fires (including 9/11), toxic mold, lyme disease, and chemical injuries -- caused catastrophic damage to her health. While figuring out how to survive day-to-day, and often minute-to-minute, she created Planet Thrive to help others avoid some of the misdiagnoses and struggles she had experienced.

She has clawed her way over many health mountains to get to where she is today. She is excited to bring the latest iteration of Planet Thrive to the chronic illness community.

In 2019, Julie published her very first cookbook e-book called Low Lectin Lunches (+ Dinners, Too!) after discovering how a low lectin, gluten free diet was helping manage her chronic fascia/muscle pain.
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