Jerry Chasen's Blog

I jumped off a bridge this past year. This is not a typical activity for me. To say the least, I learned a great deal from the experience.

This is the balance of the commitment ceremony. There are an odd number of vows. In the service, Mark and I alternated reading sentences in the vows, starting over again when we’d gone thru it once. That way, we each said all of the vows.

This poem sums up those that preceded it. It’s also probably the last one that in any real way focused on HIV. Though the disease is still very present, it feels less immediately threatening (I know that’s not particularly PC, but it is my reality).

My then new love and I were doing a long distance dance. I found that two weeks apart was about all I could really stand.

One of the earliest pieces I still have. Written for my good friend Robert’s 40th birthday, it is matched in structure with the piece I wrote for his 50th. I had sworn I wouldn’t go to New York to celebrate, in part because of lack of funds. Glad I remembered what was important!