No prompts today… just some thoughts. Hope they help you find your “safe place.” Amy
Island Dweller
When the dentist’s drill begins shrill keening
in my latest in a series of root canals
When the physical therapist says, “This
might hurt a little”
When the Red Cross phlebotomist
tries to mine my blood, missing the vein
or my legs are in stirrups, awaiting
the pinch of the Pap
I go to my island
The passport is breath
often deeeeeep breath
and I though I am prone
it’s on a bed of warm sand
Relaxed by water lapping my toes
on the shore of an endless beach
Every breath is music
Every moment is relief
© 2010 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil
Sharp Little Pencil 
vivinfrance
Amy I use exactly this technique in similar circumstances. I also use it when I can’t sleep, and the gentle lapping of water against the shore lulls me immediately. Your poem is perfect.
Sharp Little Pencil
Perfect? Thanks! I think we all need coping mechanisms. So glad ours are the same, seeing as we are separated by a huge body of water, right? Peace, Amy
Sherry Blue Sky
Ooooo, I was cringing right along with you: all of my most feared and hated activities: root canal! the stirrups! Then you took me to a warm beach with waves lapping…………fantastic!!!!!
Sharp Little Pencil
Can you imagine root canal WITH stirrups??? AAAAAAARGH!! LOL. Glad I could help! A
ladynimue
I love your island .. Mine is lil different ! no peace in my secret world 😉
Sharp Little Pencil
Peace to you, sweetie, always… A
pamela
Amy, talk about coping mechanisms for those situations, a nice sunny beach is the only way to deal with it. I hate doctors and dentists, but I know we must visit them. My only wish is for them to be, well, competent and nice.
Nice post.
Pamela
Sharp Little Pencil
Amen, sister. Especially the dentists – my biggest nail-biter of all. Perhaps it’s because I have “chalk teeth” that need lots of fillings. Plus I was born with THREE sets of teeth. I’m sure that qualifies me as a genius or something, ha ha ha.
Elephant Small
Dentists and hospitals are the work of satanic architects whose aim is to intimidate – and they don’t often miss their target…
Or maybe I just need to learn some of these relaxation techniques…
Sharp Little Pencil
Relaxation is a good coping mechanism; however, Stan, I think you are on to something about the design of hospitals… the white coats and all. I keep telling myself, “I am paying THEIR salary, not the other way around.” Helps me be a good self-advocate! Amy
Tilly Bud
I count my 13 times table because I have to concentrate. Yours sounds like more fun.
Sharp Little Pencil
To each her own! Glad you have something that works for you, Linda! A
Madeleine Begun Kane
Well said, and very good advice. 🙂
Sharp Little Pencil
Thanks. Still cracking up over your limericks, but can’t get one going tonight…! 😉
Kim Nelson
Ah, yes. I break into an inner yoga mantra accompanying deep lateral breathing. Works every time!
~~ Om Namah Shivaya Gurave
Saccidananda Murtaye
Nischprapanchaya Shantaya
Niralambaya Tejase ~~
Sharp Little Pencil
Oooh, that’s great! I never learned any chanting in yoga… pretty much just falling on my face until I could get a fix on each pose.
What do the words mean? A
Debbie
I love that you have a place to go and have shared about it in a poem. Now, to create a place of my own like that!!!! And remember.
Roger Green
Once I had tro get rabies shots. that needle is LONG, and had to stay in for about 10 seconds. I sang the whole time; it beat screaming.
Sharp Little Pencil
Oh, you poor man. Bet you sang a lot of Yoko Ono: Ice! Ice! Ice! Ice!
andy sewina
Wow! I love the idea of going to an Island – My Island’s called Tiny Tree and it’s an anagram of the place I’ve always been and will always be! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and reminding me where my safe place is too!
Happy Napowrimo!!
Sharp Little Pencil
Andy, your island is indeed ‘eternal’… and that’s true peace of mind! Thanks for your kind reply. I’ll bop by your place now! Amy
Christine
May I borrow your island next month when I go to the dentist and for my physical, it sounds so soothing.
Sharp Little Pencil
Be my guest, Christine! You can make it whatever color of sand you want… any time of day. Just before sunset is my favorite, because the sand is still warm but the sky is lovely.
Judy Roney
What a lovely way to withstand unpleasant happenings. Your description puts me in that place as well. Well done.
Sharp Little Pencil
So glad that it rubbed off on you, Judy! Amy
Mary
Excellent, Amy. We all have to find a way of getting through things we dread, getting through things that are painful. And, yes, so often the passport IS breath.
Sharp Little Pencil
It’s the best thing to pack for any trip, too!!
pmwanken
Lovely…especially:
Relaxed by water lapping my toes
on the shore of an endless beach
I’ll be looking for that endless beach soon….
Paula
Sharp Little Pencil
Paula, it’s the best. Taken partly from my imagination and partly from my years in Puerto Rico… it’s a heavenly escape, like a cheap vacation! Amy
Mr. Walker
I love that near rhyme at the end: beach and relief. And I think you capture well the problem with modern medicine, that pain is part of the treatment. And how we try to cope with that physical pain by going somewhere peaceful in our mind.
Sharp Little Pencil
Yes, the “mind over matter” component is important, I agree. Modern medicine is invasive and filled with experimental processes… ugh.
Gerald England
life is a series of sharp intakes of breath
Sharp Little Pencil
As long as you remember to exhale, right?
Dick
I know that place, or one very like it. Should we ever be marooned in a tipped-up chair at the same time, I’ll look out for you and wave!
Sharp Little Pencil
I’ll be the one in the SPF 65, wearing a big-ass hat!!