History Written by Parker A. Poodle ™ Copyright ©2021 Sarah Becker Poetry and the Pandemic by Parker A. Poodle ™ In this parent fatigued pandemic I, Parker A. Poodle, a reading education assistance dog, have been asked to help you “Spin your imagination a little faster.” To assure children “The shallowest breath will generate/ a haiku, limerick or well-pruned lyric.” Hospice nurses now write lyrics to help them cope with the Covid crisis; write poetry to process their ICU experiences. As of January 14 the total number of U.S. Covid-19 cases was 23,214,472. The number continues to climb. Covid-19 has taken a measurable toll. We have fought its spread for months and all are tired. Of social distancing, virtual distancing; stay at home orders and remote learning. School and library facilities are mostly closed and school test scores have declined. Home confinement is hard, I know! “I stare at the page, waiting for my wattage,/ wondering if it’s time to invest in/subsidized solar scripting,” British poet and pal Elisabeth Rowe penned. “Time rolls over/ like a puppy in the sunshine/ things I am paying attention to/ become weightless,” Rowe wrote In the Garden. Not so now. Most humans—it seems—feel weighed down, pandemic plagued, and overloaded. How can I, a canine assist? I encourage you to express your feelings in writing; to use poetry to explain the day’s exploits. To maybe cure what ails. A narrative poem is one that tells a tale, a story. A historical story perhaps, or—in the case of the pandemic—home life. Elise Paschen, editor of Poetry Speaks to Children, describes poetry as a “journey of discovery…filled with range—historically, poetically, and visually. Poetry is like a diving board, a place from which to plunge into [life’s] depths.” Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) wrote To Flush, My Dog…
By Sarah Becker Infectious Diseases Throughout the Years Today it is the unexpected arrival of an acute febrile respiratory disease, COVID-19 that sickens America. COVID-19, a relative of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) was first discovered in China in December 2019. The United States recorded its first COVID-19 case on January 21, 2020; on March 11 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the “novel coronavirus” a pandemic. Fifteen days later one third of the world’s population was on lockdown. The first seemingly flu-like case was diagnosed in Wuhan, China; then Europe, Italy and Spain especially. Now the United States is infected, all 50 states: Washington and New York States; New York City (the epi-center); Los Angeles, New Orleans and Detroit; rural populations as well. Disease surveillance “is the continuing scrutiny of all aspects of occurrence and spread that are pertinent to control.” The speed of COVID-19’s spread boggles the mind. It is transmitted by droplet spread including oral contact (sneeze, cough) and hands (touch and contaminated surfaces). By March 25, 2020, the stay at home health crisis had given way to economic chaos: supply shortages including personal professional equipment [PPE]; prolonged school and business closings; job layoffs and a historic $2.2 trillion Federal relief bill. The Defense Production Act of 1950 was revived, albeit slowly. Disease occurs when cells in the human body are damaged as a result of infection. Infectious diseases are caused by living organisms including viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa and parasitic worms. The South succumbed to hookworm in 1909. Infectious diseases spread by direct contact: via vectors like the mosquito; contaminated food, water and blood; and airborne droplets. The pandemic Spanish influenza slowed the First World War, and in 1918 in Alexandria “expectorating on sidewalks” became punishable by law. Today’s law enforcement officers spend their time scattering…
by ©2019 Sarah Becker Walt Whitman and the Civil War “In midnight sleep of many a face of anguish, Of the look at first of the mortally wounded, (of that indescribable look),” poet Walt Whitman wrote in 1867 in Old War Dreams. “Of the dead on their backs, with arms extended wide, I dream, I dream, I dream….Long have they pass’d, faces and trenches and fields, Where through the carnage I moved with a callous composure, or away from the fallen, Onward I sped at the time—but now of their forms at night, I dream, I dream, I dream.” In 1861 the United States offered approximately 40 medical schools and six schools of pharmacy. Despite the seeming sophistication, Civil War hospitals were mostly makeshift. “The [Prince Street] house is commodious, and, for a confiscated dwelling, is very fine,” the Alexandria Gazette noted in 1864. Alexandria’s Civil War hospitals included Prince Street Hospital, Lyceum Hall, Carlyle House, Lee-Fendall House and Episcopal Seminary. Also Prince Street’s L’Ouverture Hospital for colored troops. Medical and other supplies were secured, in part, from Fairfax Street’s Leadbeater & Co. including Lamp Oil, Charcoal, Castile Soap, Laudanum and Morphine Sulph. Virginia seceded from the Union on May 24, 1861, only to find the Federal Army ready to stake an Alexandria claim. Occupied Alexandria, a budding hospital town, served as an Army logistical supply center. It operated alongside the city of Washington, Georgetown and Aquia Creek. “Still sweeping the eye around down the river toward Alexandria, we see, to the right, the locality where the Convalescent Camp stands, with its five, eight, or sometimes ten thousand inmates,” Walt Whitman penned. Whitman, a New Yorker, traveled to Washington in 1862 to search for his brother George, missing in the Battle of Fredericksburg. He called infirmaries the “marrow…
Poodle-doo Written by Parker A. Poodle ™ ©2017 Sarah Becker February 2017 The weather is warming, springtime awaits, and the dogwoods debate their blooms. I welcome the change of seasons. March 2 is Read Across America Day and I invite all to sit with me beneath the trees, a book in paw or hand. I, Parker A. Poodle, am a retired Reading Education Assistance Dog. The dogwood is Virginia’s state flower (1918) and tree (1956). In preparation my lady and I strolled to Alexandria’s Duncan Library to check out their latest books. She entered while I waited outside. A seated bench mate put down his guitar and watched. I was restless and it showed. Not long before my arrival an angry passer-by thumped my rump and told me to pick up my poodle-doo. My lady stood poop bag in hand while I explained, in doggerel or clumsy fashion, that poodle-doo is American regional English synonymous with bird, a clipped-wing Mississippi bird to be exact. The word originated in 1906. He next called me a poodle-worm, American regional English for caterpillar with lots of hair. Maybe the passer-by thought I was Dog Town educated. Not so, though my lady is a Midwesterner. Poodles are “proud, active, and very smart!” Ask the American Kennel Club. With the AKC as my reminder I stood silently and let it go. It was then my bench mate spoke to me. “Did you come to the library to read?” he asked. “No,” I responded. “Only to research and later write.” My bench mate asked if I was familiar with the children’s book Rocket Writes a Story. Rocket is a dog and it is a book I often recommend. His favorite children’s book: Go, Dog, Go. In P.D. Eastman’s Go, Dog, Go the poodle is pink….