8-29-20 WOLFSBANE (Aconitum napellus)

Harry Potter’s Wolfsbane used for lycanthropy
Personally, I use it for homeopathy
What better healing than a remedy
Derived from geochemistry
A little poison is actually therapy
And although people love or hate this specialty
I hoard meds of Aconitum napellus desperately
In this year of pain and disease that allegedly
Is not worth fighting independently

So I swallow Wolfsbane
For flu, virus, and pain
Purple-blue magical strain
Believe me, I’m not insane
Homeopathy works although arcane
And as I heal in the main
Extra insurance that I never became
A Werewolf of moonlight fame
Although as a dog-lover, they are my favorite monsters…

© 2020 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGES: Wolfsbane & some homeopathic meds

PROMETHEUS AMOK

It is fitting, to me, that my first poem of the new decade is a protesting, non-
popular-themed one. All respect to our heroic doctors, scientists, patients. Just a
nudge that we rebels be allowed our opinions and so-needed support ❤

 

Remember all that SciFi
The Fly
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Scientists
Forced to use themselves
As experimental subjects
Because to mainstream doctors
And scientists
They were lunatics
(oh, yeah, it’s always full moon inside my head)
And everyone laughs at them
But everyone laughed at body snatchers
Those gruesome corpse robbers
Who sold them to anatomists
The basis of all our health care
Marie Curie died for her beliefs
Of course she knew about
Radiation poisoning
But who would hypothesize
Who would document
If not her?
And so I join the ranks
Of the so-called misguided
Trying to heal myself
With herbs banned by the FDA gods
And true
Maybe I’ll be punished like
Prometheus
Some days it DOES feel
Like an eagle is eating my liver
As I’m chained to the cliff
Of ignorance and money-grubbing
Big Pharm
But I’ll never regret
Trying to bring fire
To my fellow-humans
And somehow
If I don’t hit
On the cure for despicable diseases
Someone like me will
Hope it’s soon…

(c) 2020 (First poem of the decade) Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Rainforest 2 sm px

 

SHADES OF A HEALING MOON

Blue box
Overflowing blue and silver
Blue-Water-tides
Silver-sun-in-darkness
Blue Buddha
Medicine Buddha of Fire
Lapis Lazuli of Light*
Blue Jay feather of Air
My dissident Crow
Smirking at the words
Love & Peace
He truly does know
Maiden, Mother and Mage
Three stages of the Moon
Archangels from heaven
Lugging the key of knowledge
To decipher the Earthen gifts
Of silver saints
Matrona
Hildegard der Bingen
Mother Teresa
Healers all
Hear me
Heal me
Or bestow the
Bravery of Kali
On this silver-haired
Blues-singing
Sometimes scared
Cancer-Rising Aries
Clutching her portable altar
Night after night
In healing moonlight…

(c) 2019 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Portable altar
*Medicine Master and King of Lapis Lazuli Light

From Wildmind.com: (tadyatha:) oṃ bhaiṣajye bhaiṣajye maha bhaiṣajye
bhaiṣajya raje samud gate svaha Hail! Appear, O Healer, O Healer, O Great Healer, O
King of Healing!

 

PETER RABBIT’S MEDICINE

 

Somehow, someone is growing chamomile in the subtropics

Skillful fingers crocheting the stems

Into lacy tiaras worn in early summer

Ah, Anthemis nobilis

Linnaeus’ name for Roman Chamomile

A helper or doctor herb

Drying the white and yellow heads

Calming colicky infants or nervous stomachs

Preventive for nightmare

Delirium tremens in early stages

Hysteria and nervousness

Also called the “plant’s physician”

lf other florae are drooping or sickly

They will recover if chamomile placed next to it

Strengthening other herbs and plants

I like that idea but this is why

Vegetarianism makes me uncomfortable

Is there truly a difference

Between killing animals or

Killing plants?

If you are someone able to grow chamomile in the subtropics

You are the one I want to see

Please contact me

With your secret recipe for growing

Anthemis nobilis

Power in a flower…

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Aliexpress.com

 

GREEN FRIENDS

 

Growing and sharing my home

Pots of live

Jars of dried

Bottles of extracts

Brewed under New to Full moonlight

Each with their own personality

Hard not to grow a friendship

With such misunderstood healers

Angelica sinensis

Also known by her Chinese name

Dong Quai

A female ginseng

She had Oh Dee’d on her

Utah boy, Ephedra,

Thinking he looked so much like her

China boy, Ma Huang

But the good news

Ignoring the side effect

Of heart arrhythmia

Was that she dropped into a lower baggie size

Saw palmetto

Serenoa repens, in contrast

Is a Florida boy

Serious male prostate herb

He hungrily eyes Angelica S.

But unable to woo her

Until his nature kicks in

Herbs, so good, yet so slow

To heal

Patience required

Capsicum annum

He’s also known as

Cayenne, our favorite chili ingredient

By day

Plant tourniquet

By night

Magical blood hemostat

Saving me from an operation

When I flooded and drank a few teaspoons

Sanguinaria canadensis

Bloodroot

Parts of it banned by the US FDA

All I can say

Is she saved me from a radical

Slash and burn “cure”

Took a while to work

Took a while to heal

But will always be grateful

For Mother Earth’s gifts

Lovingly sharing her friends

With me

And anyone else

Who can see…

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: CS with herb table 1993 or so

 

SWEET EPINEPHRINE

 

The medical community

Stole my secret power

Most of my life

Whether excited

Or experiencing strife

The beautiful rush of adrenaline

Filled my body

Enabling me to live my life

I used it not only for

Fight or flight

Its original evolutionary

Function

But also for writing

Singing, exercise

Waking every morning

Cheerily

To face work

Driving

Drumming on the steering wheel

Speeding along the pre-dawn streets

Now, like Superman’s enemies

The chunk of kryptonite

Not green

But white

Has been removed

From the lead box

(Disguised as a pill bottle)

Its new name is beta-blocker

And it steals adrenaline

Slows down the heart

Like Superman

I feebly found the source

Struggled to return the remnant

Of my home planet

Into the container

And once again I could fly

See through walls of lies

But then

But then

So unlike Superman

Who always immediately recovered

The adrenaline was puzzled

Didn’t know what to do

Whacked-out roaming

Around my body’s myriad highways

So I took the kryptonite

Out of its protective box

But just a little

Just a little hit

To help my heart

Jumpstart

My other secret power is

I am not afraid to die

(Though no lie, afraid of pain)

But I will not give away my adrenaline

Ever again

I search for the magic elixir

In the Earth:

Is it garlic, onion, cayenne?

Give me sweet epinephrine

Or give me oblivion…

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: from the blog of kugelmass.wordpress.com