Here are a few of the poems I have written about my experience with PD.  I find writing helps me to process my feelings.  If you wish to comment (please be kind!), you can do so in the guest book. Thanks!~  Pat Statistics Statistics flow Oh no Filling my day With tales of woe Predictions of this Chances of that Telling me I will no longer be Pat Now what's up with that! I am not a number to be placed on a chart I'm a woman, mother, friend with a really big heart If you look at a number, that's all you'll see When there really is so much more to me Statistics don't show what will be They show only the past and They don't define me! I wrote the above after attending a conference on PD. I was really feeling depressed and my brother reminded me that statistics don't measure the future - only the past. With today's medicine and breakthroughs, we are making NEW statistics now! Prison Each morning I find myself in prison For what offense I do not know As I awaken from my slumbers short I arise with movements slow My body doesn't cooperate Doesn't listen to my head And so it takes me two or three tries to lift myself from the bed I hobble down the  stairs And shuffle from room to room Although there's quite a bit to do It won't get done too soon Even the simplest of  tasks Become a test of my endurance In moments like these I live for my husband's sweet reassurance Soon I swallow a handful of pills And begin the freedom wait Wonder when today the meds will kick in And cure my clumsy gait Ah, released from prison at last But the freedom is short-lived The medication wears off too fast And so I wait again Now I know how an inmate must feel As he's led through the corridors to his cell For tonight as I go to bed I, too, face the jail in which I must dwell I know this is a rather depressing poem - but - it is the truth of living with Parkinson's disease.  Suddenly Why did our friendship change because of four little words "I AM a disease" is all that you heard not "I have a disease - It doesn't have me" If I'm the same lighthearted person who's always been me Laughing at life, CHOOSING to be  carefree If  I don't walk around with a sorrowful face You think I don't know the gravity of this case If I don't "face it" the way you think that I should, I'm in denial Having been convicted by you without so much as a trial. I have chosen not to get caught up in what might happen tomorrow I will not cast wide nets filled with deep  sorrow Life is too short to fret about what might be The energy I waste worrying takes too much from me Instead, today, I'll be all I can be It isn't denial, but a decided choice Don't you think because it's my body, I should have a voice? Each of us only has so many minutes in this lifetime.  I will not spend my minutes angry, upset or feeling sorry for myself.  I CHOOSE to live my minutes happy!