Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé.

This episode traces a prostate cancer diagnosis, surgery, and 100 days of writing through recovery.

Fifteen years ago, I had surgery for prostate cancer. The next morning, I started writing—one piece a day for 100 days.

I’m recording this at Lake Eden in Western North Carolina, and today I’m going solo.

The first piece was just a report from the day. I didn’t call it a poem. I just needed something to do while I recovered. So I did it again the next day. And the next.

It turned into 100 days of writing—one piece a day while I was healing.

In this episode, I walk back through that time—the diagnosis, the surgery, the fear, the help I received, and the daily practice that kept me connected to my life while everything slowed down.

I wasn’t writing about cancer every day. I was writing about whatever showed up—friends, places, memories, small details. But underneath it all, the experience was shaping the work.

If you’ve ever been through something that stopped you in your tracks, this is simple: pay attention, keep going, and make something from where you are.

Topics include:

• Prostate cancer diagnosis and surgical decision-making
• Writing as a daily recovery practice
• 100 poems in 100 days (process over perfection)
• Creativity as a stabilizing force during trauma
• Friendship, community, and asking for help
• Life after surgery—physically and artistically

A hospital bed. A recorder. One small goal.
That’s how 100 days of writing began.

00:00 Introduction — Going solo

01:10 Cancer diagnosis (2011)

04:30 Fear, secrecy, and first steps

08:45 Meeting the urologist / treatment options

13:20 Decision to have surgery

18:10 Surgery day — March 31

21:00 First poem after surgery

24:30 Writing as recovery practice

30:00 Help from friends / community

36:40 Day 7 — cancer clear

42:00 Expanding to 100 poems

48:30 Taos, travel, and returning to life

55:00 New York — nearing 100 days

01:02:00 Finishing the 100 poems

01:06:00 What the experience taught me

01:10:00 Closing reflections