Health Story Type: Poem

Cultivation Also Starts With C

“Cultivation Also Starts With C” by Jess Skyleson is a poem that uses the invasive, difficult to remove plant Japanese knotweed as a metaphor for cancer without ever saying the word, "cancer." Skyleson switches back and forth between describing the beauty and tenderness of the plant itself with the devastation it wreaks on the environment to ultimately center the story within a doctor’s diagnosis. This poem could be used in a variety of health humanities courses to, for example, encourage students to consider alternative metaphors for thinking and speaking about cancer. It could also fit in a course that explores the intersection between human and environmental health.

He was not the first dead man I X-rayed

The author had this to say about the poem: “I have X-rayed thousands of people over thirty years, but this one still come backs to me. It’s the story I tell when people ask me for ‘hospital stories,’ so it’s no surprise that I eventually wrote the story in a poem. I can still so vividly see him and me alone in that cold room.” " Content warning : Gun violence, some graphic descriptions of bodily harm This is a short poem written from the perspective of the author as a X-ray technologist. It describes one particular experience he had caring for a man with a gunshot wound who dies during the treatment and the poem. Provides an opportunity to talk about death and the impact experiencing death may have on healthcare providers. The brevity and personal quality of this piece leaves room for students to interpret and discuss their own thoughts and reactions. There is a complex story in a brief poem, with lots to unpack, accessible to all audiences.

Maldita Depresion

This poem (~30 lines) describes depression from the inside, emphasizing the writer's frustration that her depression is impacting her writing. She describes her feelings by saying that the world is cold, but she doesn't have a coat. She wants to feel the world's beauty, but she doesn't see any heart or soul in the world around her. She finishes the poem wondering if she will wake up tomorrow. The poem is constructed around concrete imagery that makes it accessible to intermediate Spanish readers and above. It could be a useful writing prompt or discussion starter in poetry, composition or conversation courses, as well as storytelling groups or workshops.

The Weight of the Soul

"The Weight of the Soul" is a poem written by physician and poet Jack Coulehan. It refers to an experiment run in 1901 to measure the weight of the human soul by weighing a body before and after death to conclude that the departed soul weighed 21 grams. Coulehan concludes that it is humbling to hold less than an ounce of soul, and he hopes that it is enough in the end. This poem prompts reflection on the meaning of life and death, what can be known from scientific data and what cannot.

Fae Kayarian: Physician in Training, Poet in Progress

Fae Kayarian is a poet and medical student who began as a scribe at Harvard Medical School. She has shared her experiences through poetry in the form of an autobiography titled "Journals of a Visitor" and several stand-alone poems. Her website contains eight poems ranging in topics in medicine from her point of view as a bystander and now a student. Generally useful for close reading of poetry. Two poems - "The Color Blue" and "It's been six years" could interest families of patients experiencing loss and dementia. Others would be beneficial for teaching physicians and other health professionals in mentor positions. Her poetry would serve as a reminder of what it's like to be a student and the impact that medical educators have on the future of medicine as mentors.

Front Lines: Poets & Physicians Document COVID-19

This project paired poets with NYC-area physicians to write poems as a way to provide space within and beyond the creative process for catharsis, shared understanding, and healing. The project started in spring of 2020 as a collaboration between two sisters--poet Elizabeth Fernandez and physician Nicole Fernandez. At the time I accessed this (8/11/22) there were 13 poems by 8 poets, written "for" 8 physicians. The poems (from June and July 2020 and October 2021) capture the experiences and emotions of these front-line health care providers during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNCOVID–a 55-word story

This poem by Wald is composed of 55 words describing his experience as a spouse caregiver to a patient with brain cancer. The adjectives were similar to those Wald heard being used to describe the experience of COVID. In a brief afterward, he explains his intention for the poem: "I hope that this story might help readers pause, reflect, remember, and respond to suffering, both covid and 'uncovid,' with compassion for others and for oneself." This short poem and the author's reflection could be useful prompts for a discussion of how COVID experiences are similar to or different from other more "ordinary" or familiar experiences. There is also room here to discuss the ambiguity in poetry and the way it can allow both for multiple individual interpretations and empathy/common ground.

Poems from Life with Juniper Village

Poems from Life with Juniper Village is a project developed in partnership between the Pennsylvania Center for the Book and Juniper Village Senior Living at Brookline. The goal is to share and celebrate the lives of Juniper residents with original, individualized poems presented by local poets. The website for the Senior Living community can be found here: https://junipercommunities.com/community/brookline-senior-living/ This 2022 site is the third year of the project, which is described here: https://crdpala.org/2019/03/20/poems-from-life-with-juniper-village-literature-links-communities/ The project illustrates the power of poetry as a form of narrative for honoring life experience and promoting well-being. It is also an illustration of a community-based project that utilizes narrative arts to celebrate community and seniors.

Hello, Goodbye

Steve Jobs' last words were: "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow." Oscar Wilde went with: "Either that wallpaper goes, or I do." (At least, that's how the story goes.) But the way most of us part company with language at the end of our lives is more halting and gradual. Even when a dying loved one is unable to speak clearly, other forms of communication often take over: noises, gestures, touch and eye contact. We have stories in this episode from a hospice nurse, from journalists covering mental health and internet culture, and from language writer Michael Erard who is writing a book about last words and their relationship to first words. The author mentioned in the abstract talks about "biological death" vs "social death" and how living people are involved in both. Dying alone seems like the definition of a "bad death," which led him to write the book about last words - even though they aren't usually any more profound or meaningful than first words. This is a linguistics-focused podcast so there's an orientation to language acquisition that will make this useful to a language class - Spanish or English - without being too distracting for a non-language class.