Melinda Coppola

twenty four may | from the inside out

Melinda Coppola

twenty four may | from the inside out

In the Pink

“Fruits on Pink” by Bink She begins. First, there is pink. Well…vivid electric magenta is more apt.  She pushes the frayed brush into the water jar, hitting the  bottom too hard. Taps out a neurodivergent rhythm on the canvas. Some would call it background. To her, I think, it is the main thing, the focus, […]

Anxiety, the unwelcome house guest (who never seems to leave).

  Agita Sometimes I think there four of us making a life inside this sweet gray house. Add the felines, we make a quirky octad. There is the me who is I poet, I mom, I carer for everything and everyone who moves within this circle–– the him and her, the furniture which claims no […]

(She is) Unbroken

Unbroken There were times I imagined you different. My young mother mind pictured you— normal, typical, non-disabled. I can’t use those words anymore for their opposites evoke— lack, absence, tragedy, and you, my child, are a celebration of plenty, a bounty of delight, a well of fascination. In fact, you stand against the backdrop of […]

The Life Cycle of a Day

Bink and I walk outside a lot. We are blessed with a number of parks and nature sanctuaries in our area, and we know some of them quite well. This poem stemmed from a particular ramble early last spring. I’m pleased that Willows Wept Review chose to publish it in their fall issue.   The […]

Hello Out There

Hello, As a very part-time Yoga teacher (and former studio owner), I maintain a separate email communication list for my students. There is a little bit of cross-over; a handful of my students (or former students) also subscribe to this blog. I’ve never sent the same email to both lists, until now. The writing has […]

April is….on Autism, Art, and Friendly Commerce

APRIL IS… As you may know, April is Autism Awareness Month. It’s also National Card and Letter Writing Month. Please allow me to make things more interesting by combining the two! Bink paints once a week, usually working on two canvases at a time. I also dabble in paints and colored pencils, with a nod […]

AUTISM AWARENESS DAY Redux

I’m re-posting this poem in recognition of “World Autism Awareness Day.”   As D, a sister mom from my autism tribe, has said, ” We are aware. We are very aware.”   Autism Awareness month is April, World Autism Awareness Day, April 2 and, in case the day lacks color, (as if any day with Autism […]

Folliculi, Follicula

TEND and SAVOR “Why the hair is attached to the head it will not come out please respond to me in a video.” These were the first words Bink communicated to me today, shortly after she got up.  I’ve answered this question—one of about six in the current sequence that makes up part of my […]

Headway Happening Here

Smile Last time it was Tuesday, six months and four days ago. The incredible Dr. S managed a first— pedaling the chair back just a bit, your face more accessible, sunglasses shielding your eyes from too-bright light. He touched twenty dulled pearls with his counter, probing slyly, quickly, distracting with wide smiles, silly faces, a […]

What Do You Know?

What do we know for sure? I find myself wondering, lately, if we mostly hold the beliefs that suit our ease. For some, self-contempt can provide a kind of familiarity which becomes belief. For others, there is ease in what’s left after all the anger—which is really a mutation of pain—gets bored and leaves, or […]