The Gero-Punk Project

Three generations; two weeks; three countries and many places (and planes, trains, automobiles, boats, and tons of walking).

Journey

Napping on the plane.

   What is time above the clouds?

    Fragmentary self.

 

 Jet-lagged in the Tuileries

So young and naïve

posed in in those famous gardens.

I thought I was loved.

 

Giverny

He tends the spirit,

chest high in water lilies.

Oh, that I could paint!

 

Rue Dombasle

The weather has changed.

It seems louder with wet streets.

Where’s my umbrella?

 

Chartres

Sipping cider in

the shade of the cathedral.

What do the crows think?

 

Des Lumieres

Miracle unfolds:

The starry night sings to me!

Boy naps in mom’s lap.

 

Line 12

Ignoring danger,

wee boy clambers over seats.

Hot evening metro.

 

Balcony

Tending her garden.

Tomatoes already watered?

Paris thunderstorm.

 

Vacation

Three generations,

living out of one suitcase.

Will we all survive?

Andalusia

Turning in worship,

our faces warmed by the sun.

Fields of sunflowers.

 

Granada

Careening wildly

through old streets like mountain trails.

Looking up. Oh! Stars!

Alhambra

Do not touch the plants!

(But what if the plants touch me?)

Poppy shakes my hand.

Venice

As the city sinks

my heart rises like the heat.

Water everywhere!

 

Perspective

I’ve heard it said that

the old are invisible.

Perhaps we don’t see?

Late Night

Starting to cool down.

Going to make my way to bed.

Pigeons coo coo coo.

6:00 a.m., Last day

The Parisian doves –

with only a slight accent –

warn “hot day ahead!”

 

 

 

Greetings from Paris, France!

As promised, here is the third (and last) collaborative poem created during the most recent Gero-Punk Salon. Curious about how this poem emerged?  Check it out.

And thanks for reading us!

It didn’t matter that her hands were cold.

The warmth of her love will be with me forever

–and it gets better every day.

Until the storm rages against my soul,

until the tide receding reveals the hidden rocks,

what lies under or on, what matters

is today’s joys and moments,

flickered like the sparrow, gone as I reach for the glasses.

–Created by some combination of: Erica, Simeon, Ken, Terri, Alison, Teresa, Diane, Karen, Mary, & Jenny

Hey there, Gero-Punks old and new and every/anything in-between!

Time for some Gero-Punk News!

Gero-Punk Salon: This past sunny Sunday, 6/9/19, we had a great gathering of ten of us, the perfect number of creatures for diving deeply into collaborative inquiry around complex questions about traveling through the life-course as gendered beings.

We also shared items of note for a reading list I’m curating and will publish here, so stay-tuned for that (and feel free to contact me if you have any titles you’d like me to add to the list!).

We closed our gathering by unleashing our playful, creative spirits, the result of which was three rather awesome poems.  I’ve published the first two: What to Make of Changes?; and Sweet Noise and New Breath. Keep your eyes open for the third and last poem of the bunch!

Hey, if you have any ideas for potential themes around which I might conjure and facilitate a future Gero-Punk Salon, let me know!

ChangingAging:  I wanted to share with you that I was invited by Dr. Bill Thomas’s digital community, ChangingAging.org, to publish one of my recent essays.  It came out this past Tuesday! Check it and let me know what you think: Gero-Punk Dharma. 

I’m somersaulting with gratitude for the opportunity to widen the gero-punk discourse. Thanks, ChangingAging.org!

Generations United: The Generations United Global Conference took place in my fair city Portland, Oregon over the past three days. I met many really passionate and interesting new people, caught up with some colleagues I’d not seen for a couple of years, and had a great time sharing a workshop session with colleagues from Bridge Meadows (Hi, Shelley!) and LeadingAge Oregon (Hi, Kirsten).

And it (almost) goes without saying that the highlight of the entire conference was co-facilitating with my dear comrade Roger Anunsen, Portland Community College Gerontology faculty and co-principle of Mindramp.  Roger and I presented on the PCC Ending Ageism Campaign, spearheaded by our fearless leader Dr. Jan Abushakrah.

The name of our presentation was “Singing the Same Song: Fostering Intergenerational Understanding,” and we highlighted three ongoing initiatives: 1) A flexible training module developed to increase awareness and offer practices for addressing ageism at the individual, interpersonal, social and cultural levels; 2) A 10-week online course, GRN 201 Understanding Ageism, predicated on a collaborative active learning design; and 3) The Flipping Mindsets project, which focuses on powerful perspectives and practices for serving returning, mature students.

Curious?  I’m happy to share more with you. Let me know your questions and ideas and the projects you are working on!

Intergenerational Bon Voyage: Guess what I’ll be up to the next couple of weeks?  I’ll be on a grand three-generation adventure with my mother and daughter. France, Spain and Italy, watch out, here we come!