Vera's website - authorverastasny.com

Order Vera's book 'Being Heard: Healing the Voices of Trauma - A Collection of Writings (not an affiliate link)

Welcome back to podcast poetry live.

I heard about Vera Stasny from a close friend and business partner of mine, Laine K. Laine interviewed her long-time friend Vera on her youtube channel Laine’s Domain, and I worked on the original recording as a video editor. Feel free to watch that interview. There’s a link to it in the show notes.

I was totally blown away by Vera’s life story. Here was a woman who faced trauma basically from birth after her parents moved from Czechoslovakia to London, England at the outbreak of world war 2. She experienced the horror of the London Blitz and took the psychological scars with her when they moved to America after the war.

At a young age Vera was then diagnosed with cancer. As if that wasn’t enough to contend with other illnesses arose as she battled to survive. She did survive after taking the responsibility of her health away from the medical establishment and into her own hands.

But Vera has had one of those lives that are full of major challenges – physical, emotional, and material. Did she succumb to the pressure? No. Vera is a true warrior, not just looking after herself but showing compassion and giving practical help to others in need.

As well as working her way to the top of the finance industry in the US, she was also a teacher for many years. After retirement despite ongoing health issues Vera goes skiing most days of the week with a determination to enjoy life and make life better for others.

And guess what? Vera wrote a book containing astonishing writings, including poems delving deep into the experience of trauma – both her own and that suffered by others. The book is called Being Heard – Healing the voices of trauma – a collection of writings - And she gave me permission to present it here on Podcast Poetry Live! Thank you, Vera!

I present three of her poems today. The first is called Blitzcrieg – and it paints a vivid picture of her war experience as a toddler. The second ‘If I died before you’ is a poem about love, and the fear of loss. There is so much insight in that poem. The third and last of Vera’s poetry I present you with today is called ‘Second chance’ – hearing this verse is a must for anyone who has health challenges and doesn’t know where to turn for help. She tells you how it is.

I want to thank Vera Stasny for this opportunity to read and voice her incredible work. Thanks Vera.

Okay. Let’s go for a journey courtesy of Vera Stasny, one of life’s inspirational survivors. But she didn’t just survive. She grabbed life with both hands, ran with it, and enjoys it to the full.

Okay, let’s start with Blitzcrieg.

A poem by Pascale Petit called Treesitter started it - led me to explore what someone called Julia Butterfly Hill, experienced and achieved. She lived in a Redwood tree, 200 feet high, for 738 days. The corporations tried to shake her out of that tree, but she was way too powerful for that. That was a revelation for me.

How Pascale Petit was able to impart a little of what Julia experienced using words, so effectively, in verse was another revelation. I had to respond to her.

Pascale's work can be read in the Transcript. My response to her is also there.

'I hope if Edward is 'looking down' he won't be offended by my possibly irreverent use of his creation.' The painting was actually unfinished when he died in 1898, and currently hangs in the V&A museum in Kensington, having been given it by his wife, Lady Burne-Jones, in 1909.

The painting is itself based on a poem as this extract from the V&A website notes ~

The triumphal procession of Love was a common theme in Medieval and Renaissance literature and art. However, the specific basis of Burne-Jones's composition in The Car of Love is a long allegorical poem by the 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch, the Trionfior Triumphs. The poet has a vision of a number of victorious pageants or triumphal processions, in which historical, Biblical or mythological figures take part. The first triumph is that of Love over the human heart; the next is Chastity, which triumphs over Love; followed in turn by Death, Fame, Time, and finally Eternity, which triumphs over all.