The Burnham Review

Headed to Portland, Oregon tomorrow to work with Tina Esquivel for the week at Good Health Physical Therapy & Wellness. My presentation notes on Brain Health, Motor Imagery and Proprioception for my free Thursday evening presentation are at https://www.nervewhisperer.solutions/peace-project/category/self-care-exercises I think it will be streaming on Facebook live at Good Health Physical Therapy & Wellness

Category: Self Care Exercises Treatment with Kimberly Burnham, PhD (Integrative Medicine), Integrative Manual Therapy, Certified. Call or Email for appointments in Spokane, Washington, Eastern Washington, or Northern Idaho. ...

The Speed of Peace Haiku by Kimberly Burnham

Peace quiet, cool, slow
not like war hot fast always
before peace arrives

Sept 6, 2024, 2024 using the jump off line, “peace, like a poem, is not there ahead of itself …,” from Making Peace by Denise Levertov.

making peace :: denise levertov A voice from the dark called out, “The poets must give us imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar imagination of disaster. Peace, not only the absence of war.” But peace, li…

Day 2 The Rat

The rat: so much more ominous than a tiny mouse

9:30 at night I am warm and comfortably in bed
I hear our cat crying
annoyed I register the specific cry he makes
when he has caught something
a mouse, a baby bird, a tiny bunny
that creature he has caught outside
and brought inside has escaped

Moonshadow’s version of catch and release
I fling off the covers
slip into my comfortable slippers
then into the kitchen cupboard
where we keep used glass jars
pull out one with a wide mouth

My mission, I have accepted
to capture a mouse keeping everyone in the house
safe and proud of how tough and unafraid I am

At the same time realize it is a tiny mouse traumatized by our cat
not a cougar or a moose or even a coyote
I hear calling
reminding me to be embarrassed for feeling so tough
in the face of a tiny mouse trying to hide behind a box
on the floor the cat is circling
on the opposite side from Moonshadow I move the box
the mouse runs towards my open glass jar
the lesser of two evils
I imagine the mouse’s perspective

Now safely in the jar the lid covering the opening
I slide the side door
step out into the cool night air
mentally slamming
sliding the door in our cat’s face
I am protecting the mouse
Moonshadow will have to go downstairs
out the dog door if he wants at the tiny mouse again

I walk to the edge of the porch wanting to release this being
as far away from the house as I will go in my slippers
inside I see our cat nosing around the box
the smell of the mouse still on it

Tossing the jar into the recycling in the garage
I cringe at the thought of washing it out
putting it back in the cupboard
using the jar again for leftovers or dressing
or even to have with water and mint cuttings
creeps me out even though the jar is also perfect for that
I wash my hands thoroughly with soap before going back to bed
even though no part of me touched the mouse

Last night was very different than the first time
almost 60 years ago I caught a mouse
a rat really running along the street in Bogota, Colombia
I lived there when I was 6
looking back I am still not sure what possessed me
at 8 years old, reaching down, I grabbed it
immediately realized my mistake
it twisted in my hand and bit me

Scared I have never told of my fear
imagining I would die of some rat disease
but feared the trouble I would see if I complained
if I snitched on myself
ratted out my foolishness
now I know a glass jar and a cat
make a better mouse trap than a hand alone

I am working my way through "Throw Up Your Emotions on Paper, a Workbook Planner of 21 Challenges to Help You Learn to Write About Emotions in Your Memoir in 21 Days" by Carolyn V. Hamilton https://amzn.to/4dABDTJ Starting May 8, 2024 and over the next few weeks, I want to get in (better) touch with my feelings and emotions, so I can live an amazing life, have more engaged relationships and be a more Creative memoir writer. This is the poem that came out of today's exercise.

Throw Up Your Emotions on Paper!: A WORKBOOK PLANNER 21 CHALLENGES to Help You Learn to Write About Emotions in Your Memoir in 21 Days. (The Memoir to Legacy Collection) Throw Up Your Emotions on Paper!: A WORKBOOK PLANNER 21 CHALLENGES to Help You Learn to Write About Emotions in Your Memoir in 21 Days. (The Memoir to Legacy Collection)

An excerpt from Mistaken for a Man from the Non Binary Rabbit (rewriting of The Velveteen Rabbit. )

Or to play with the words of the original, from The Non-Binary Rabbit, or How We Become Real, https://amzn.to/3TYOXbq "What is gender?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "What gender am I? Does it mean having things that buzz and beat inside you and a stick-out part?
"Gender isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When you love yourself and are kind to yourself and others. Gender is, well when a very special person is attracted to you and loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you may want to choose your real gender but even then it doesn’t matter."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. But when you understand your real gender you don't mind being hurt. It is like loss, the loss of someone you love, it hurts so much but it hurts because of the love you shared and the love you shared makes all the difference in life."
"Does gender happen all at once, like being wound up," they asked, "or bit by bit?"
"Some people thinks it happens all at once and it does seem to for a lot of people but for some very special beings it doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become fully actualized and kind to yourself and others based not on equipment but on your heart and mind. It takes a long time. That's why the heart and mind piece doesn't often gel or happen for people who break easily like snowflakes, or have sharp edges like crocodiles, or who have to be carefully kept from the truth. Generally, by the time you figure out that gender is not important, you have a huge heart, a sharp mind and so much resilience that what those people obsessed with gender say doesn't matter. But these people don't matter at all, because once you have figured out the insignificance of gender, you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
"I suppose you have a gender?" said the Rabbit.
And then they wished they had not said it, for they thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

The Non-Binary Rabbit or How We Become Real A Re-Writing in Honor of the Velveteen Rabbit’s 100th Birthday. The Non-Binary Rabbit or How We Become Real is a story ripped from the pages of history about a non-binary rabbit, a great great grandchild of the Velveteen rabbit who turned 100 in 2022.

The poet’s brain

Good Writers Vs Poor - Good Writers Vs Poor Poem by Kimberly Burnham Read Good Writers Vs Poor poem by Kimberly Burnham written. Good Writers Vs Poor poem is from Kimberly Burnham poems. Good Writers Vs Poor poem summary, analysis and comments.

Fluent gibberish from the brain.

Fluent Gibberish Wernicke's - Fluent Gibberish Wernicke's Poem by Kimberly Burnham Read Fluent Gibberish Wernicke's poem by Kimberly Burnham written. Fluent Gibberish Wernicke's poem is from Kimberly Burnham poems. Fluent Gibberish Wernicke's poem summary, analysis and comments.

A childhood memory in my upcoming memoir, Mistaken for a Man, a Story for Anyone Struggling to Feel Comfortable in Their Own Skin, Clothes, or Community.

The Horned Toad
Albuquerque, New Mexico ▲1962

Abandoned to the care of my aunt
old and wrinkled from a life in the sun
on the back of a huge horse
I sit on the blanket behind
the saddle where my cousin rides
the field full of sun scorched weeds
and one horned toad, fat and round
spikes jutting out from its body

I wish I was bigger
stronger than four
I would leap from the saddle
towards the unsuspecting horned toad
no one would stop me

Too small I yell about the injustice
back to the house released
from the soft woolen blanket
I run fast as I can
searching and searching
for a horned toad sandy tan
against the red dirt

I cry to my mother a few days later
when my parents return from a short trip
a tomboy thwarted

I don’t think about my cousin
scared she won’t get me back
on the horse without help if I fly off

I don’t think of the horned toad
and what this creature loves
about their wild desert life
I am just passing through
capturing memories of childhood

I may or may not include poems in my memoir but I find that writing the story in poetry form helps me write the prose story in a more vivid way. This poem could be considered similar to a "Persona" poem where the speaker and the poet are not the same person. In a memoir it would not technically be a “Persona” poem because both are the same person but they are different ages so in some ways a different people.

Free vision exercises today ... I hope you are all doing well during the pandemic. In the mean time I finished a small book on vision and it is available for free download. on Amazon on Monday and Tuesday March 30-31. The link is on my website at

Peace Poetry & Brain Health Exercises Daily Words peace in many languages peace paix heping vrede pax damai

Peaceful Desire in Kaili Ledo (Indonesia)

In Kaili Ledo spoken in Indonesia
desire and concern
or lack of feelings
are juxtaposed with peace and calm

"Naino rara" is to crave and desire greatly
to be moved or touched by life
or beautiful music
to strongly want something
a relationship
a connection
and "naino rara" also means to feel at home and peaceful
as if when we reach our goals
motivated by a strong desire
we develop inner peace
and a sense of relationship to place

"Natinda rara" also means calm and at ease
but unlike "naino rara" it has a dark side
meaning doesn't care about or is unmoved
hard-hearted and unconcerned
and yet satisfied
as if one can be unconcerned
about the feelings of others
and still find ease

What it also says
we don't often know the inner desires
and motivations of another person
perhaps is it out of fear or lack or worry
that one seems not to care about fellow human beings
while another achieves greatness
and contributes to world peace

Peace Word of the Day https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937207315/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=creatingcalmn-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1937207315&linkId=5a9546ce939115e5977fb4d98888793e

Awakenings: Peace Dictionary, Language and the Mind (A Daily Brain Health Program) Brain health contributes to peace. With clarity of mind, the ability to perceive and respond to one's environment, recognize opportunities or dangers and make good choices, we can create inner peace for ourselves, our families, our communities and the world. Healing contributes to peace because p...

“Atom” peaceful in Lango a language of Uganda and Sudan. Read more at

Peace Poetry & Brain Health Exercises Daily Words peace in many languages peace paix heping vrede pax damai

Peace word of the day Vrede

Peace Poetry & Brain Health Exercises Daily Words peace in many languages peace paix heping vrede pax damai

Brain Health Poetry and Free eBook .... Before and After Dictionary Poems at Trish Hopkinson A Selfish Poet. Please comment on the blog if you wish. https://trishhopkinson.com/2018/12/23/before-and-after-dictionary-poems-guest-blog-post-by-kimberly-burnham-phd/?fbclid=IwAR22uFZ7KvlHVR8Gjp5fW4XYDrNwZlE6moxnRuQpkLn7lY2-UJ2F3X83xyE Kimberly Burnham’s most recent book, Awakenings: Peace Dictionary, Language and the Mind, a Daily Brain Health Program is on free download on December 24-25, 2018

Before and After Dictionary Poems – guest blog post by Kimberly Burnham, PhD Kimberly Burnham’s most recent book, Awakenings: Peace Dictionary, Language and the Mind, a Daily Brain Health Program is on free download on December 24-25, 2018 at In an English dictionary …