A Single Drop of Blood - Tapa blanda

In the last couple of years, I've got to know Traci Siler, Edwin Patterson and others bitten by mosquitoes carrying the West Nile Virus (WNV). Their stories are interesting and significant. WNV is a mimic -- it acts like other illnesses, such as MS and Lupus, making it difficult to treat. Health care professionals often treat symptoms rather than WNV, putting patients at risk and delaying treatment of WNV. Though there really is no treatment of WNV; doctors have to use drugs or physical therapy to tackle symptoms -- drugs, physical therapy, diet and exercise, et al. A delay in treatment might mean, for example, the drugs -- morphine -- needed to treat aches need to be stronger. By the way, there is no vaccine; there is for horses with WNV, but not humans. The book centers around WNV and Traci Siler. who is very prolific and outspoken about the virus. She was one of those misdiagnosed. However, other infections and people are included. There are poems about Ebola, flu, smallpox and others. One of the"infections" is an adverse reaction to a common generic drug. The book is essentially three parts: WNV poems, other infections, tanka and haiga, and poetic bios. At the end of the book is a brief explanation of the pandemics. Part of the inspiration for doing a book is Traci's Beneath a Morphine Moon, edited by Ed Bremson. A selection from the book, modified to haiga is included along with some additional work by Traci. In addition, poets writing at Tanka Poets on Site are represented with a selection based upon the painting, Morphine Moon This edition adds new poems.

Gary Blankenship is a retiree who dabbles in eastern poetry. He is author of The Poetic States and a drop of sunshine: Writers and Lovers Studio www.writers-and-lovers.com editor@ writers-and-lovers.com) and editor of Traci Siler's DemLips (same publisher. He is the author of A River Transformed: Wang Wei’s River Wang Poems as Inspiration (Lulu.com) and the self-published Reflections and with Suzanne G. Griffith and Victoria Oak, Garbage Collection (contact the author at garydawg@msn.com). Gary published the online journal, MindFire Renewed and its companion, FireWeed. He has been widely published on the web and in a variety of paper publications in the United States and abroad, including in the Tanka Journal of Japan 2005 anthology, The Tanka Society of America quarterly and the Seattle PI. He spends his non-poetry time watching dandelions recover their property.