WHarryman
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wharryman.bsky.social
WHarryman
@wharryman.bsky.social
540 followers 2.1K following 730 posts
Scientific writer/editor at an NIH-funded comprehensive cancer center (work on adhesion molecules in early stage PRAD); psychotherapist for survivors of childhood sexual trauma; personal trainer - secular Buddhist, cyclist, poetry lover - personal account
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wharryman.bsky.social
a new poem showed up last night and this morning
#poetry #poem
a new poem The unburnt bush The burning bush fell extinguished by torrents of rain before revealing its solemn secrets. Bare feet bloodied by sharp stones. Untended sheep scattered amid brambles and brush. The man stood blank in crimson rain. The staff at his feet rattled and writhed then slithered away. He knelt on the wet rocks and wept as the prayer I am who I am stuck in his throat. ~ 10.31.25 - 11.1.25 William Harryman
November 1, 2025 at 2:00 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
A new poem that showed up yesterday and wrote itself in about 10 minutes. #poetry #poem
A new poem that showed up yesterday and wrote itself in about 10 minutes. still life a small orange goldfish swims imperfect circles within the large crystal vase surrounded by still life with rotting apples moldy cheese a dull knife stabbed into an old oak table this is the vision tattooed beneath my eyelids when sleep eludes shallow breaths there is no frame by which to know borders or boundaries so the day fades and candles are lit tomorrow the goldfish will be dead again and the flies imperfectly circle the rotted apples ~ by William Harryman
October 16, 2025 at 2:59 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
yellow caution road sign with two figures - sign says "Caution! Dipshits in charge"
October 9, 2025 at 5:50 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
new poem
#poem #poetry
new poem: discovery ground fog shadowed the barren fields when I found the collapsing house hidden within blackberry brambles the once white porch lost its stairs and the front door was covering holes in the floor of the entry old mason jars dated in the 1950s filled with fruits and vegetables lingered in the kitchen cabinets faded paint peeled from rotting wood of kitchen walls and broken glass still littered the bare wood floors the first bedroom in the hallway had a large doorless closet with stick figures penciled in black some kneel while others cower or curl in fetal position as if the roof might fall a child’s hieroglyphics left for others to decipher the dank mystery of meaning
September 20, 2025 at 3:27 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
This beautiful image was captured by Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Web Master Liz Kemp #nature #storm #Tucson
image of lightning strike from purplish clouds against a red-orange sunset in the Sonoran Desert - image captured by Liz Kemp
September 17, 2025 at 7:09 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
pie chart showing, in the U.S. between 2013-2022, that 75% of political killings are committed by right-wing extremists, 20% committed by Islamic extremists, 4% committed by left-wing extremists, and 1% committed by "other"
September 12, 2025 at 10:46 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
album cover of Peter Gabriel's "Us" - abstract image of Peter Gabriel standing with arms outstretched, wearing a dark blue suit
September 8, 2025 at 11:27 AM
wharryman.bsky.social
as the daily shit storm of this fascist/authoritarian regime rages on, it's important NOT to lose our humanity - I post this to remind myself of this need more than anyone else
Keep fighting for the good. Keep showing up. Keep loving. Keep giving back. Keep being kind. Keep being brave. Keep caring. Keep trying new things. Keep showing grace. Keep on. The world needs you to believe in the good.
September 3, 2025 at 12:13 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
Tucson for the next few days. #weather #tucson
Panel that says, "It's so hot that my shadow just went back inside and gave me the finger."
August 3, 2025 at 8:04 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
remembering my homeland's heritage
black and white photo of slaves sitting on and standing around a wooden cart to be pulled by a work horse
July 14, 2025 at 10:11 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
here is a section from a longer poem I am working on, the timing of the prompt is perfect, as I wrote this early this morning
#prompt #poetry
From “Funeral” Black leather shoes feel stiff and tight on my feet, too new, the wool suit scratchy on my skin. Open windows and dogs barking in the distance. People I barely know fill the pews behind me, their voices a low hum of blackberry thorns and catfish ponds, I barely notice the frumpy woman sit at the organ and begin to play “Amazing Grace,” his favorite hymn. None of this feels correct, the music wrong. The pastor proclaims the virtue of a man he never knew, all the words tumbling from his mouth create a pile on the crimson carpet, the mother weeping, the sister silent in her relief, my cold hands sweating as attention drifts to willow fronds he forced me to cut before lashing me, blood stains. His face absolute gray, foreshadowing the furnace. *There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for everything under the heavens. A time to be born, and a time to die….* Those words hang in the air as my heart stops, no one in the church moving, silence as even the breath in my lungs became still, a fly pinned mid-air, wings frozen in place, vision blurs, colors swirl, textures pulse and vibrate, darkness fills the vast space between body and being, an opening or maybe an end, and from the chaos I emerge standing at ocean’s edge, wind coarse on my skin, so many questions caught in my throat.
July 13, 2025 at 7:24 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland added to the official record this incredibly accurate preamble for the horrible budget bill the MAGAts passed:
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland entered this "preamble" into the official record: "Mr. Speaker, I found a Preamble to this Big Ugly Bill. We the billionaires, and our King, in order to deform and sicken our Union, establish injustice, ensure domestic servility, weaken our peoples defenses, undermine our general welfare, and reserve to ourselves and our posterity staggering debt servitude for eternity, do herby instruct the Republicans in Congress to strip 17 million people of their healthcare, increase copays, premiums and deductibles for everyone else, cut 42 million people off of nutritional assistance, increase the national debt by 4 trillion dollars, trash renewable energy systems, increase our electric bills for the carbon kings, all to weaken and destroy the Constitution of the people of these United States of America. Please include this Preamble in the legislative record. I yield back."
July 5, 2025 at 11:41 AM
wharryman.bsky.social
the other day I was digging through a stack of old papers and found two poems that had been torn out of a notebook - neither was good or complete on its own, but together they seem to find a semblance of coherence [a word bracketed by * is meant to be in *italics*]
a new poem: This is a prayer Ten thousand stars emerge from every teetering second. I answer, forever… The cat crawled into a box and has been dead for weeks. People mill about in the streets Beneath yellow lights and whisper of red balloons drifitng across the sky. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow… No, not that… Two girls costumed in Sunday dresses skip through a dark alley strewing rose petals amid the broken glass, cigarette butts, used condoms. I used to know why the coyotes howl. Our fathers are dead and buried, their voices forgotten beneath the sirens and music. In the morning the air will be heavy with smoke and dry earth, beetles caressing each moment as though the rain has fallen. There is no history in the breathing. This is a prayer. Listen…
July 1, 2025 at 7:54 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
be safe out there
Sign that says "no kings, yas queens"
June 14, 2025 at 10:38 AM
wharryman.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month
Rainbow striped American flag that says "We the people means everyone"
June 5, 2025 at 12:04 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
the figure below shows DoD funding 2024 vs 2025 for various health research - funding for prostate cancer dropped from $110 million to $75 million - only Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy showed a minor increase in funding
chart shows DoD funding changes from 2024 to 2025 for various health issues and cancers impacting military personnel
May 28, 2025 at 4:53 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
it's been a while since a poem about my father's death has come around, as they sometimes do - this one came in a form I have not really used before, so that may have impacted the outcome
a new poem about my father's death: Aftermath I was thirteen when his heart reverted to stone When she lost herself in a forest of grief When being came unstuck in time When crows blackened a field of oaks When I closed the coffin and buried god When I discovered a cave in the Siskiyous When I tasted the warm emptiness of whiskey When Coyote lead me to his den and I believed When darkness became the only medicine When gray became the lens filtering the world When that cave become a cool sanctuary When liberty caps liberated the underworld When Coyote tricked his way into dreams When I discovered he stopped taking his meds When the irises he planted died in a late frost When Grayback offered a glimpse of peace When memory swallowed itself and choked When a snowy winter field whispered silence When morning became a curse of sunlight When I lost the key to the chains I put on
May 15, 2025 at 4:14 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
I don't want to dis the authors of the paper from which this figure is extracted, but single cells rarely survive to seed a metastasis - it is much more likely for small cell clusters to seed the metastatic site, and those clusters contain several cell types, not just tumor cells [PMID: 27678419]
cartoon of single cells leaving the primary tumor, entering the bloodstream (intravasation), and then leaving the bloodstream to form a metastatic tumor (extravasation)
May 9, 2025 at 5:33 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
a new #poem arrived today, based a memory from childhood
#poetry
a poem: The carnival My little sister cried when the purple balloon tied loosely Around her wrist broke free of its tether and floated Into a canyon of sky. There were loud black grackles In the carnival parking lot, goofy pigeons, and ravens Circling high above, warily watching the rubber creature Bouncing on the breeze as it became a speck of color In the distance. The mother tried to comfort my sister, Offered her sticky baby blue cotton candy, a ride On the ferris wheel, or maybe the bumper cars. She Chose the giant ferris wheel, and I had to ride with her Even though I hated that ride since the year when We got stuck atop the grinding wheel for hours While my sister cried and threw up and my mother Paced frantically on the ground below. But this day The ride functioned normally, and from the pinnacle I could see far across the valley soft green hillsides promising gentle grasses, grazing horses, quiet hours Of rolling down the hill until I was too dizzy to stand.
April 17, 2025 at 6:15 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
it feels important to normalize that it is okay not to be okay right now - let's be there for each other
April 15, 2025 at 8:26 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
a new poem arrived while I was trying to write about science stuff - strange how a picture rises in the mind and I feel compelled to find the words to give it form - my father was born in a two room house in 1926 in Topanga Canyon
a poem title: How I imagine my grandmother, pregnant, 1926 None of this matters when the final night falls A distant roar, dirty engines in the city All the words gathered into wooden crates Minutes fall away, a dog sleeps in the corner She has never worn the red-checked apron Boiling water, potato skins piled on the floor Moths circle a single bulb hanging from a cord Pot belly stove, spider webs cling to ceiling Simple recipes scribbled on yellowing paper No more poems, swollen belly occupies all She never imagines any possible futures A few babies, apples rot in the cold night God is a dust storm before the crops ripen Fenced in dirt, prayers for rain unanswered Each night feels longer than the one before The baby kicks, a sad smile crosses her lips
April 15, 2025 at 7:49 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
a new poem slowly emerged over the last couple of days - a bit of a verbal experiment
a poem called "Cycles" There are monsters in the night Eyes that can see behind the mirror There are eyes behind the mirror Ivy tendrils wrap around the spine There is a spine of woody ivy Angry voices in the darkness There is darkness in their voices Words weave a web of sorrow There is sorrow dripping from a web Syllables carved as runes on stone There are syllables heavier than stone Monsters prowl quietly in the night
April 10, 2025 at 4:57 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
Picture of a crow. Text says "Crows collect the broken, the overlooked, the shiny pieces of a world that ignores them, building lives out of things no one else wanted."
March 31, 2025 at 10:57 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
Picture of a small being watering a plant that has a giant heart where the flower would be.
March 29, 2025 at 10:18 PM
wharryman.bsky.social
a new poem showed up today - weird how they can show up while I'm trying to write an academic paper on resistance to radiotherapy in prostate cancer
Variations The void dropped ecstasy and birthed the world. Life is a labyrinth of loss dressed in flowers. Can anyone be known as other than flesh? The ocean teases with its violent disguises. Coyotes howl riddles in the desert nights. If only language contained living cells. A drop of rain can fall unseen and profound. Surely, death is a silent stone in the river.
March 27, 2025 at 6:41 PM