• leaflet

    . . .a thin triangular flap of a heart valve. . . a small book usually having a paper cover . . . a medical lit-art e-journal from The Permanente Press
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Spread the Word

See Bio & Other Work

Cindy Lopez, RN

Contributor's Note

Simplicity/Complexity was an exercise in observational writing at the Taos Writing Conference for Medical Professionals that I attended a several years ago. We were given the task of writing a piece only given the title of simplicity and complexity, while outside on the campus of the Mabel Dodge Conference Center. Each starts with visual observation that then leads to deeper meaning, both seeming to come to the same conclusion!

Simplicity / Complexity

Poetry, Vol 6: Iss 1

Simplicity

Swooshing of the birds’ wings overhead

Rooster and chicken figurines on top of the roof’s edge

Stacked round rocks forming the border of the garden

Wooden rope swing I sit in

Small creek bed running under the wooden porch

Grace is a gift from an innocent friend

Certainty that all bleeding stops eventually

Inevitability that death comes to us all

  

Complexity

No linear lines to any buildings

Walkway is consistently uneven

Several outbuildings with no connection

We all fall short of perfect

You can make it as complex as you want until death finds you