Poetry

Protected: From Individuals With Aphasia and Brain Injuries to Poets: How the Book I Don’t Think I Did This Right Came to Be

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by

Steven C. Cramer, MD
22 April

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Protected: Racetrack

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by

Louis Castro, PT, DPT
11 March

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Poem Against Any More than a Glimpse of the Battered Athlete, or Time for Dr. Pepper, Duracell, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the New Chevy Malibu

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Woods Nash, MPH, PhD
28 February

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Old Woman in a Hospital Bed

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Stephen Carp, PT, PhD
19 September

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Living the Hard Times Out Loud

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Naomi D. Williams | Noah S. Williams
7 May

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Three Poems: Lost in Translation

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Marta Tymchenko, BS
14 November

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Profiles in Professionalism With Bruce Greenfield

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Afflicted With Wishes for Change

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Dustin Willis PT, DPT
25 April

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Fall From

Julia Chevan leads us into her experience of a concussion through her moving and intimate poem, revealing the challenge of recognizing a new reality on the road to recovery....

In this exquisite poem, Sophie L. Schott conveys the language that envelops a mother and her infant son, surrounded by complex medical equipment and imagining another narrative, a life not "seen through the telescope of sickness."...

Poet in Profile – Ted Kooser

Interpreting poems written by renowned poet Ted Kooser in a Nebraskan winter in 1998, his friend Amy Haddad highlights the beauty of the human spirit when faced with life-threatening challenges. Kooser wrote the poems on his two-mile walks before dawn as he recovered from surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation for tongue and neck cancer in 1998. Compact and powerful, they show how one creative mind forged a bit of order in the “chaos” of recovery....

Empathy

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Jamie Fleshman, SPT
13 November

In this artfully crafted poem, Jamie Fleshman makes a strong distinction between the shallow demands of sympathy and the far deeper mutual understanding that evolves from genuine empathy. She speaks authentically from her own experience, giving moving, useful instruction to those who want to come alongside....

Stone Tongue

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Florinda Flores
15 April

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See Me

Amanda LaLonde, PT, DPT, GCS shares an original poem that captures the feelings of frightened, defiant patients in an impersonal healthcare system. In her author commentary, she then presents a challenge to herself and her colleagues to return humility, humanity, and empathy to healthcare....

The Game

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Anju Kanwar, Ph.D.
17 October

In her poem “The Game,” Anju Kanwar marks the slow progress of time one experiences when haunted by painful thoughts and memories, in the early-morning hours of solitude following a loss....

Imprisoned

Vivid, sensorial reflections–of sight, of sound, of touch–create an intimately familiar and entirely unique lyric contemplation on memory and an imagined life-changing injury in Bruce H. Greenfield’s “Imprisoned.” ...

Frida Kahlo’s Backbone

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Michael J. Leach, Ph.D.
2 May

Through a carefully constructed and thoughtful poem, Michael J. Leach, PhD, explores the tumultuous life and art of Frida Khalo revealing the tremendous strength that underlies this artist’s work. ...

Poet in Profile: Larry Eigner

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Joe Fritsch
2 May

English doctoral student Joe Fritsch provides an introductory look into the complex visual poetics of Larry Eigner (1926-1996), a poet with cerebral palsy, who developed his artistic practice over a lifetime....

Poet in Profile: John O’Donohue

Dr. Jenifer Markley examines how the poetry of John O’Donohue challenges healthcare workers to reassess their interactions with suffering “at the intersection of the sacred with the profane."...

“It Sounds Like a Drama:” Hearing Stories of Chronic Low Back Pain Through Poetic (Re)presentation

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Dr. Vinette Cross | Dr. Janet McGowan
30 November

British researchers Dr. Vinette Cross and colleagues bring a poetic voice to the experiences of patients with chronic low back pain and their family members, creating a performance that bears witness to the frustration, sadness and resolve of these individuals....

Sharing Spirits and Silence is Strength

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Y.A. Warren
30 November

Struggling with severe aphasia after her stroke, Yvette Warren offers a truly powerful poetic expression of her journey and reminds us of the strength in silence....

Poet in Profile – Robert Frost (1874-1963)

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Marilyn McEntyre, Ph.D.
20 June

Poetry Section Editor Marilyn McEntyre revisits the classic Robert Frost and challenges readers to use Frost's words to reflect on the way we interact with our patients. ...

Disabled Souls

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Zoher F. Kapasi, Ph.D.
20 June

Zoher Kapasi’s uses poetry to respond to India’s stark healthcare inequality in the 1980s while calling attention to the role perspective plays in the way we perceive ourselves and others....