Beth Fournier

Beth Fournier is a native of Massachusetts and a former high school counselor. At the age of twenty-six she was suddenly stricken and diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a severe neurological condition. This left her paralyzed and blind. She now lives in a long-term care facility in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She enjoys audiobooks, painting, and singing. Music and the memory of sunflowers lift her spirits.

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► Beth Fournier's microchap & (selected) poems are available below. Download the single-page PDF by clicking the title.

Origami Microchap with Selected Poems

I Dream in Color

Click title to download micro

Cover:

Author’s painting,
“The Meadow of Hope”
Each flower represents a
different neurological disease.

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I Dream in Color

I woke up in inky darkness.
I had become blind,
devoid of color.
But my dreams
are alive with color.
I dream
in vivid and vibrant hues
of deep greens and blues
crimson and violets
yellows and oranges.
The colors are alive.
They drive my dreams
into swirls of pinks and purples,
curling around each image I see.
I thrive in the colors.
No black. No white.
Everything my mind touches
in my dreams is in color.
The colors are wild-
bright lights and neons.
My mind cannot see blindness.
It can only see colors.

The Floating Head

My head floats.
I feel it move right, left.
Paralyzed, they whisper.
Paralyzed! I scream.
Blind! I cry.

My eyes and body betray me.
Such treachery!
I cared for them so well.

Now I don’t need a mirror.
I rely on other hands to fix me,
to dress me, to do my hair,
to tell me how I look.
It’s a disturbing, uneasy feeling.

They say I have clothes.
They say I have a body.
But I do not feel them.
They say I look so nice.

They say. They say. They say.
I have to believe them.
I am a ghost with no body.
I do have a floating head

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Poets