Health Story Type: Poem

Imagine What It’s Like: A Literature and Medicine Anthology

This wide-ranging anthology includes literature from a variety of historical periods, genres, and authors (a range that includes John Milton, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Louisa May Alcott, and Dylan Thomas as well as Gwendolyn Brooks, Joy Harjo, Rachel Naomi Remen, and Rafael Campo). It is organized by topics, including the experience of illness, beginnings and endings (on death and birth), trauma and recovery, coming to terms (on the time "after catastrophe, diagnosis, rescue or death," and healing costs (the experiences of caregivers, both professional and familial). In addition to 65 works (most of them 2 to 5 pages in length), the volume also includes a list of "suggested longer readings" and "notes on authors and selections."

Between the Heartbeats: Poetry & Prose by Nurses

This collection of writing includes a diverse range of international voices. They address a variety of experiences of care, including in-patient, out-patient and home care. As the title indicates, the collection spans poetry, brief stories, and reflections, all previously published elsewhere and collected here. In the Foreward, Joanne Trautman Banks observes that the works addresses not only personal experience but also reflections on the limitations of the profession.

Poetry for Sexual and Reproductive Justice

Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (SRHM) is an organization compiled of researchers, activists, writers, as well as other experts devoted to negating ideologies and other harmful policies, philosophies, laws, etc. against sexual and reproductive health. They are dedicated to procreating programs and policies that are focused on social justice as well as human rights, including through their journal. One of the journals, “Poetry for Sexual and Reproductive Justice,'' is a collection of 57 poems, some in Spanish, all written by individuals outside of the organization and relating to sexual and reproductive health. Some examples of the topics addressed in poetry are stigma around menstruation, sexual violence, contraceptives, and misogyny to name a few. This anthology could be used as a resource in a syllabus focused on women’s, reproductive, or sexual health. It could additionally be an aid within a creative writing class.

Being Heard: Empathetic Artistic Interpretations of Young People Living with Serious Medical Conditions

The "Being Heard" project explores how artists can help young adults with serious medical conditions feel understood and cared for. Young adults worked with a team that included a nurse researcher from The Institute for Integrative Health, an art therapist/social worker, and two professional artists. Each child wrote an "I Am From" poem and then participated in an interview with an artist, who created a painting and accompanying narrative based on what they heard. The nurse researcher and art therapist then shared the painting with the child, asked for their thoughts and feelings, and offered an opportunity for the child to create a watercolor print. The exhibition at the Children's National Medical Center included eight paintings by patients between the ages of 10 and 19; the booklet from the show also includes the art work, poems and children’s responses. The Washington Post ran a story on this project, available at this link.

Children’s art as visual narrative

This article about visual narrative highlights the effectiveness of non-verbal expressive arts like drawing, painting, and constructing as therapeutic and restorative experiences. Trauma survivors, including children, may find it challenging to articulate their experiences verbally, as trauma can impact the brain's language centers. The article contrasts previous approaches that encouraged forgetting traumatic events with the current understanding of the importance of acknowledging, validating, and providing mental health intervention for survivors, allowing them to tell their stories through creative acts. The article references the project "Forced to Flee: Visual Stories of Refugee Youth from Burma," which compiles a book of art expressions by young refugees (a page for the kickstarter campaign for the project was available as of 12/20/23 at this link). The project showcases how visual narratives, conveyed through art, can tell powerful stories, open hearts, and build bridges of understanding. By honoring the visual narratives of youth, the project not only raises awareness about human rights issues but also offers a glimpse into possibilities for reparation and redemption for young survivors.

Neurodiversity Poems

This anthology houses a multitude of poems related to neurodivergence. The authors all have different backgrounds as this is an open site where anyone can publish their work. The site is searchable and poems are tagged. Some examples include a poem about masking, the perception of “normal,” and “praying for a neurotypical brain.” One poem details an individual's experience with growing up and feeling like they constantly are on the outside looking in and having to hide aspects of themselves to fit in. This site could be utilized as a resource for creative writing in terms of neurodivergence. As poems from personal, first hand experiences of neurodivergence, they provide insight as to the nuances to individual experiences that caution us against generalizations and stereotypes.

Mental health Poems for Teens

The Poets.Org website of the Academy of American Poets has curated this collection of 14 poems related to mental health that were selected for teen readers (part of a series of "Poetry for Teens" on various topics). Some themes throughout the poetry are depression, anxiety, as well as hope and resilience. Each poem includes a description of some of the themes within it as well as details about the author. The pieces span a range of time periods and a variety of authors with different backgrounds including, for example, Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath, as well as Naomi Shihab Nye and Ada Limón.

HIV, Mon Amour: Poems by Tory Dent

"HIV, Mon Amour," a collection of poems by Tory Dent, transcends conventional narratives surrounding HIV/AIDS. Dent, who was HIV positive, employs lyric poetry to create a deeply personal and bracingly honest narrative, resisting the dominant journalistic and political expressions associated with the epidemic. Through her unique approach, Dent navigates the stigmas attached to HIV/AIDS, rejecting both the stigmatizing and activist-driven narratives. Her use of language, range of feeling, and occasional self-doubt reveal a nuanced exploration of her experience. This collection serves as a powerful testament to the complexity of individual lives affected by HIV/AIDS, challenging pre-existing socio-political frameworks and fostering a deeper understanding of the human experience behind the statistics and red ribbons. Dent’s poetry could be used to analyze how illness narratives are far from one-dimensional – the poetry showcases the often contradictory feelings wrapped up in illness by encompassing pain and joy, isolation and community, the private and the public. "HIV, Mon Amour" could also be used to examine poetry as a narrative form.

Abecedarian: On Purchasing and Receiving Genetic Information from Two Commercial DNA Companies

This twenty-six line alphabetically organized (abecedarian) poem employs image-rich metaphors circling around themes of colonization creating diaspora, disconnected self image, and fragmenting familial connections over time. Korean American poet Yung Shin uses phrases like “ethnographic afterlife,” “genealogical disruption’s (in)ability,” and “sweet peace of the unborn” to convey messages relating to her line of heritage and the demarcations of life, death, and legacy that define it. She touches on concepts ranging from genes to curses to the Neanderthal Valley, all emphasizing tension between past and future, stringing the present along in perpetual liminality. A sorrowful, thought-provoking poem that embraces uncertainty, Yung Shin’s work is packed to the brim with meaning, where every word counts. This poem would be useful in an anthropologically focused health class because it could broaden perspectives of how interwoven our stories are with our ancestors, as well as a genetics course. In the midst of being taught highly factual information, a short reading reflection assignment on something so ambiguous could be not only a refreshing change of pace, but a moment of inspiration.

Heartbeats

Dixon’s poem is written in 20 couplets of trochaic dimeter mimicking the rhythm of a heartbeat. In simple, often two-word phrases separated by periods, Dixon counters the stability of his rhythmic meter by evoking the chaotic feelings of coping with unstable health. He includes the ups and downs of swinging quickly from themes of exercise, confidence, and calm routines to sickness, bodily overwhelm, and hospitals. By weaving in the words “breathe in” and “breathe out” he highlights the conscious efforts one must take to keep breathing in the midst of conditions making it nearly impossible. This poem would go well in any health focused literature curriculum as it gives a uniquely structured and deeply evocative perspective to the challenges of living with a heart condition and managing the panic that comes along with it.