Firing Back . . .
— Aleksandr Gangnus
Translated by Bradley Jordan

Firing back at my heavy heart,
I longed to run, run far away,
but the stars are too high, too far apart,
and for the stars there’s a lot to pay.

***
This poem is carved on Gangnus’ headstone in Vagankovksy Cemetery, Moscow. I have not been able to find a reference page for him in English. He was the father of Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Gangnus was a geologist by profession, and a poet in his heart.

These are things I’ve been doing that help me. Feel free to use, adapt to your own situation, or ignore if they’re not helpful. I’ll be posting these intermittently, as I manage to write them up. They’ll be tagged “Quarantine Care”, if you want to use the tag search to find them instead of scrolling.

1. Limit your news consumption. It’s easy to be consumed by the 24/7 news cycle, and spend every waking moment huffing the latest “breaking news”, especially for people who consider themselves “news junkies” and for whom information provides a sense of control in the chaos.

However, because of the state of perpetual reporting, there’s not that much new content in each hour/update, and you can find yourself imbibing the same stories over and over. That’s not helpful for your mental health, any more than eating cookies all day is good for your physical health.

Choose two or three reliable sources of information, and set a limit on how much time you spend with each. I read the San Francisco Chronicle (my local newspaper) each morning, and glance at the headlines in the Financial Times, reading a story only if it has something new to add to what I have already read. I also pick up news as I’m scanning my social media, which leads me to the next tip.

2. Limit your social media consumption. This is always a good idea, because of the sheer amount of misinformation, emotional manipulation, and outright dreck that comprises the social media torrent.

Choose channels that you enjoy using. In the BT (Before Times), I had decided to take a break from Facebook because I wasn’t enjoying it. That break continues, because, except for the cute bird photos, I haven’t missed it, and my mental health has improved by not exposing myself to the endless stream of stuff.

I’m currently on Tumblr (which I enjoy) and Twitter (a mix of work-related posting and following some people who provide entertaining and/or useful content).

I also add things to my Pinterest that interest me, although I don’t spend time browsing others’ boards. The potential for distraction is too great, and I need to be careful about my time.

I also set limits on how much time I spend on each channel. I find that 15 minutes is about as much of any one channel as I need in a day. I break it up into two or three visits, which helps me see more varied content, and also prevents me from slipping into the state of mind I think of as a “social media coma”—that place with no mental focus, when it’s too easy to just keep scrolling and scrolling, even though I know I need to log off and turn my attention elsewhere.

And yes, I set a timer to keep myself honest.

3. Isolate your news sites and social media in their own browser, and use them only on your laptop or desktop. This makes it easier to avoid pulling up a news site or social media channel “for just a quick check” in between doing other things.

Don’t use apps or shortcuts, and don’t save the passwords in the browser.

Log out of each site when you are done.

Set it up so that you have to make conscious effort to go to the site and access the information.

Sometimes, simply having to open a browser, pull up the site, and manually log in will give your brain enough time to realize, “no, I don’t want to be doing this right now”, and allow you to disconnect and go on to something you actually want or need to do.

These have helped me set some clear boundaries around my time and my mental energy, and I hope they are helpful to you as well.

Thanks to the wonderfully literate Artemis, whose library is apparently infinite, I have discovered several new poets, including Pavel Antokolsky and Georgy Ivanov. As many of the poets she features on her blog are not American, finding their works translated into English has been challenging. (While I have some abilities with French and Italian, that’s the limit—so reading the sublime Greek, Turkish, Russian, etc. poets in their native language is not in my immediate future.)

However, with Alibris to the rescue, I am now the proud owner of a former library copy of Twentieth Century Russian Poetry
by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Max Hayward (Editor), and Albert C Todd, III (Editor).

All 1,078 pages of it.

Which is to say, you will now be seeing more Russian poetry among my “Poem for Hela” posts.

I hope you enjoy them!

A Fixed Idea
~ Amy Lowell

What torture lurks within a single thought
When grown too constant; and however kind,
However welcome still, the weary mind
Aches with its presence. Dull remembrance taught
Remembers on unceasingly; unsought
The old delight is with us but to find
That all recurring joy is pain refined,
Become a habit, and we struggle, caught.
You lie upon my heart as on a nest,
Folded in peace, for you can never know
How crushed I am with having you at rest
Heavy upon my life. I love you so
You bind my freedom from its rightful quest.
In mercy lift your drooping wings and go.

The Weekly Insight from the Oracles for April 12, 2020 is live on my Patreon!

Thank you to my amazing Patrons!

Not a Patron yet? Click through to discover the myriad perks waiting for you!