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Jane Dougherty

@janedougherty47.bsky.social

740 followers 590 following 1.7K posts

Writer of fiction and poetry, lives in a green fortress. Not interested in 'communities'. Learn to live together, the rest of the natural world manages to. Visit my Substack https://substack.com/@janedougherty47 for short fiction and poetry

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 12h

Sorry about that. Maybe If I hadn't been sent by an over-zealous gynecologist to an over-zealous lab, they'd never have opened me up, and you'd not have had a problem to balance it up!

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 12h

Predictive text is proof (if any were needed) that machines don't have any notion of context, because they don't have one!

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 12h

Thanks Andy! Nothing's ever perfect, but the shorter a poem is, the more chance there is that is won't have multiple problems 😀

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 12h

Sorry, just me getting on my hobby horse about us being too self-absorbed. That kind of writing bores me to tears 😀

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 13h

Thank you, Paul 💙

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 13h

We do. But imperfections in a poem isn't the same as personal imperfections. Is a poem valid as poetry if it exists only as a cathartic exercise with no universal meaning? Can an exposé of someone's perceived problems mean much to those who don't know them?

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 13h

Just out of curiosity, when was it? Mine was in 2006.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 14h

I had an ultrasound and they saw micro something or others. If I'd been overweight or a smoker, they wouldn't have been out of the ordinary. I had to have the tissue taken out for a biopsy. Nothing there. Just another weirdness. Like having no marrow in my sternum.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 14h

💙

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 14h

And the funny thing is, there was never anything wrong. But they had to poke about to find that out! Perhaps it was just to make sure we don't differ on any important issues 😀

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 18h

So delicately phrased, no warrior-woman self-congratulation, just quiet, picking myself up and getting on with it. (I didn't know this about you, but I should have done. I have the same charcoal dots, same place).

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Reposted by Jane Dougherty

Merril D. Smith @merrildsmith.bsky.social · 1d

Good morning! I wasn't going to do this prompt for #PoemsAbout #imperfectMe but started writing it yesterday @paulwritespoems.bsky.social writing group. It's still rough. Thanks as always to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Poem:

Still Standing

The scar on my right breast
a faint tracing,
the charcoal under the artist’s paint,

tattooed dots,
ellipsis signaling the story continues—

always a before
and an after--

so far, always an after--

the sagging of flesh, the greying of hair,
points for endurance, if not for style,

as vain as anyone, I suppose,
but embracing the imperfect,
me.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 19h

Congratulations! I'm going to look at the details now.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 20h

Thanks Debbie 💙

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 20h

Thank you! When the subject is 'me', imperfect or otherwise, the less said the better 💙

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 20h

Thanks Alan. Between humility and awe is exactly where we ought to sit, I believe.

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 1d

I'm sure I'll know when to stop.

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 1d

It did. I was just having a conversation with someone about grammar so it tickled me that you have put it into a poem.

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Reposted by Jane Dougherty

Carolyn Thomas @carolynthomas.bsky.social · 2d

For #PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe Posting my effort now but madly busy so will try to catch up with everyone’s work later - the ones I have seen are great 😊
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 1d

Ha ha! Clever 😀

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 1d

That was a bit cheeky, but I like the idea of putting the reader on the spot 😀 I find it intriguing, not so much why so many people think that their experiences are fascinating, but why so many people seem to find them fascinating.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 1d

It might be just an impression, but it seems to me that's there's suddenly several billion people who think they are the nombril of the universe. We have reached a shattering degree of narcissism!

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you!

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 1d

I think I'm getting close. It's a long way up from the bottom.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 1d

Still working on it.

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