SPOTLIGHT -
The Zoom Reading
"...They speak in poetry. Do they know I am there, listening?"
Sea-Fever
"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky..."
A Barred Owl
"The warping night air having brought the boom, Of an owl's voice into her darkened room..."
Prompts for Doctors Who Write
"Write yourself scared the first day of med school, dying to cure the world..."
Prompts (for Doctors Who Write Poetry)
Being a poet isn't a 9 to 5 job.
Nursing Home Frontline
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori: It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.
Backyard Mercy
"A fruit fly fell in my fine crystal glass, half full of five-dollar wine..."
Daybreak in Alabama
"...Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist, and falling out of heaven like soft dew..."
War Stories
"I’ve told these war stories for decades, made them tales of friendship, savvy, good luck, and brotherhood’s strength..."
Beginning
"The moon drops one or two feathers into the field..."
Fraternity Paddle
A true war story is never about war...
First Grade
"Until then, every forest had wolves in it..."
Prayer/Oracion
"I want a god as my accomplice..."
A Pair of Unmatched Socks
"...couples become capable of 'cognitive feats' beyond that of a single individual."
Why Married Men Live Longer
"She takes them gently from my hands, scrunches her brow, studies their loneliness..."
Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout
"Down valley a smoke haze, Three days heat, after five days rain..."
Two Crises I Didn’t Train For
"I can still hear my patient shriek..."
Modern Medieval Artist
"While I watch the artist paint, I imagine him in the time of plague..."
Day 29
"...now i forget what day it is and still feel i’m running out of time..."
Complaint
"...Night is a room darkened for lovers..."
When the Doctor Called...
"I stood shivering in the dark kitchen, thinking about that word, ventilator..."
Eden's Stoner Chair
Reading books and journals, charting treatment plans to help patients find an Eden of their own.
What Lets Us Breathe Easier
"You’re a poet, aren’t you?"
Carpe Diem
"...So far the days keep coming. Seize the day gently as if you loved her.”
Sitting, Sewing
"My hands grown tired, my head weighed down with dreams..."
Pledged to a Little Nation
"My love, I am pledging to this republic, for however long we stand..."
Sufficiently Sweet
“...sweetness comes as if on loan, stays just long enough to make sense of what it means to be alive, then returns to its dark source.”
An Unexpected Journey: From Medicine to Poetry
How do poetry and medicine interact and relate? One doctor shares his journey.
Coming of Age
"... unconscious as hope that we sense around us now borne back into the earth..."
Psychiatric Residency Rotation
Reform school, a place where workers smoked with the boys, a place where fathers were AWOL and mothers begged us to save their sons.