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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2009)
dOijUStlOUt FEBRUARY 6, 2009 1 fight hunger in Oregon, reward vourself with laughter f/W* ■. * ■ I ,1 books Intensive Care Retired doctor uses poetry to heal from battle with cancer From now through Feb. 27 Just Out is offering a FREE pair of tickets to the March 4 Portland concert with comic Kathy Griffin. by Kristin Steele he word “survival" can be limited in its come. Billed as “healing poetry for living in the scope, sometimes only implying the act of moment,” In Her Eyes explores the very human de continuing to live. To take that act of liv sire to tell the stories of experience. There is pain in ing, put it under the microscope and create the work, but there is also beauty and love. Writing poetry was an act of defiance against art out of the pain, grief, love and gratitude B a . what might have appeared as a stacked deck. found therein is something else altogether. Everyone who stops by Just Out with a donation of V canned food for Esther’s 1 Pantry will be entered into a I drawing to win these tickets. II Food will be accepted JI weekdays at Just Out Wat6234 N. Greeley. Many of the poems were written as Beal battled Melissa Beal is turning her life of repeated surviv al into something more. plished 54-year-old gave me the space in Salem doctor at Pacific my life to actually sit Associates down and look at things who is retiring after 18 a little more slowly than years of service. There I had been and to re she has served as depart ally feel the things that ment chairwoman and had affected me and my Pathology chief for 13 years and as ■HUNGER IS I NOT FUNNY. “Chemotherapy is an accom Beal Slhe winning entry will be JI drawn on Monday, March 2. ovarian cancer. life,” she told ¡Universe ' • president of the profes Radio. “From that came sional corporation for six this ability or willing years. She also spent six ness to create poetry, years as medical director and in that creation it of the laboratory. really had a healing ef But none of these ti fect on me.” tles would indicate what PROGRAM 2: large collec she was to become on the tion of 180 poems in brink of retirement from the book came quickly. what had been her life’s Beal started the book in work: poet. Beal recently March 2006 and saw the released her first book of poetry, In Her Eyes. FEBRUARY 21 - 28, 2009 The final published work in July 2008. The list of circumstances Beal has come As Beal told ¡Universe Radio, many of the po through can make the mind spin. She was raped ems just came to her and seemingly “wrote them for years by her grandfather as a child. She had a selves” without much effort or turmoil. And it is near-death experience and broke both legs while often these pieces that find the most resonance mountain climbing at age 20. She confronted her with her audience when she shares them. own alcohol dependency in 2004. And then, as if “Bleeding Heart” is one of those pieces: all that weren’t enough, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2006. Any one of these things might have been cause The world is coming up blooms. Bleeding heart. to throw in the towel. But instead Beal used them Hyacinth. as fuel for expression and opportunity for introspec Forsythia. tion. Her father’s death in 1997 opened the door to Names, like old'fashioned tunes, her creative self, but it was her battle with cancer Not heard much any more. that created the right atmosphere for the bcxtk to The ancients are awakening. jfnbap tfjc 13tij a benefit for J2JIE3ÌL Pro iCIjoicr (Pregón RECONCIUNG IN CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCHES Bethlehem Lutheran NE 39th Ave, Portland, www.bethlehemportland.org I rpcabzy seins Central Lutheran NE 21 st Ave, Portland, www.centralportland.org BALLET CHRISTOPHER STOWELL TICKETS START AT $15 503.2 BALLET TICKETMASTER WWW OBT.ORG Mission of the Atonement Lutheran/Catholic Beaverton, www.motaspirit.org ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Mt Carmel Lutheran SW Portland, www.mtcarmellutheran.com ’ ' • ■ ' \ . • k ■ ' ‘ * Redeemer Lutheran NE 20th Ave. Portland, www.redeemerlutheranpdx.org ebc vnuvniLiii atte burlesque and dante partv x St. James Lutheran Park Blocks, Downtown Portland, www.stjamespdx.org W77W<f 31^ 3/~7 t/Si /iS _________ £_ .otQ '_____
