{"id":39307,"date":"2023-05-17T08:49:03","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T07:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=39307"},"modified":"2023-05-17T09:06:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T08:06:01","slug":"poem-about-pem-the-cost-of-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/poem-about-pem-the-cost-of-living\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem about PEM: The Cost of Living"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cost of Living: from and to, or\u2026<\/em><\/strong>
\nThoughts from my bed<\/strong><\/h2>\n

by Rachel Hazlewood<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I try to live my life \u2013 and then<\/strong><\/p>\n

I find I\u2019m back in bed again:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Exhausted, drained, wrung out and weak;<\/strong><\/p>\n

Too tired to move; too tired to speak;<\/strong><\/p>\n

Too tired to lift my head \u2013 or blink.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The only thing to do is THINK<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think about the life I had:<\/p>\n

It breaks my heart, it makes me sad<\/p>\n

To think of what I used to be<\/p>\n

Before this illness \u2013 before ME.<\/p>\n

I used to take it all for granted<\/p>\n

Being and doing whatever I wanted:<\/p>\n

I could work all week and meet with friends and talk,<\/p>\n

And don my boots and walk and walk\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I loved to walk. Oh Boy! Oh Man!<\/p>\n

I\u2019d walk up Snowdon, up Pen Y Fan,<\/p>\n

Cross Striding Edge and up Helvellyn<\/p>\n

If I tried that now there\u2019d be no telling<\/p>\n

What price I\u2019d pay for the attempt:<\/p>\n

I guess I\u2019d end up back here, in bed \u2013 unkempt.<\/p>\n

You might think I\u2019m daft; or mad; plain crazy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all in my head \u2013 perhaps I\u2019m lazy.<\/p>\n

There are no tricks, no hocus-pocus<\/p>\n

For us we must fine tune our focus.<\/p>\n

Nowadays there\u2019s far too much to lose<\/p>\n

If I don\u2019t take the time to carefully choose.<\/p>\n

With this relentless illness in my life \u2013<\/p>\n

Today should I be friend or sister, daughter, aunt or wife.<\/p>\n

Should I give my all at work \u2013 or stay at home<\/p>\n

Feeling useless, worthless, abandoned \u2013 alone.<\/p>\n

Should I wash up, or hoover, or do a small task in the garden.<\/p>\n

If I cancel plans with you I do beg your pardon.<\/p>\n

But when your life is touched by ME<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll understand, you\u2019ll quickly see:<\/p>\n

Whatever I choose there will be a price to pay<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, if I choose too much today.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For you may think it\u2019s great to lie in bed<\/strong><\/p>\n

All day, and rest and sleep and dream;<\/strong><\/p>\n

But not for me \u2013 in pain, exhausted<\/strong><\/p>\n

To lie and think and silently scream\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cost of Living: from and to, or\u2026 Thoughts from my bed by Rachel Hazlewood   I try to live my life \u2013 and then I find I\u2019m back in bed again: Exhausted, drained, wrung out and weak; Too tired … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[5897,7556],"class_list":["post-39307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-poem","tag-rachel-hazelwood"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/barbed-wire.jpg?fit=1242%2C526&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-adZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39307"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39315,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39307\/revisions\/39315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}