Medicine
Abby Caplin, MD, MA practices mind-body medicine and counseling in San Francisco. She helps people living with chronic medical conditions to lead empowered and vibrant lives, reclaiming their wholeness despite illness (http://www.abbycaplinmd.com/). Abby also offers a weblog, Permission to Heal, for people who are "up in the middle of the night or down in the middle of the day" because of illness. The following poem was first published in Pulse Magazine.
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DEPRESSION SESSION
The chopped apple of her father's eye,
She tastes the grapes of her mother's drunken wrath
The barely visible slivers of silver-tongued almond
Needle her intestines as she savors
The seedless watermelon of fruitless friendships,
And endures the hard rind
Of a body gone awry,
To be chewed and chewed until swallowed or
Spat out. A salad of sorts
Surrounded by lemons
Home-grown, organic, bitter
And full of juice. She brings me a tough
Clear plastic bag filled with them
To our session.
"They're the last of the season," she tells me.
I pray this is true,
While at home, I pore through cookbooks,
Searching for yet another recipe.
- Abby Caplin
- The Importance Of Caring For Caregivers
Mr. B, the patient who first stirred my interest in family medicine, was a spry former World War Two fighter pilot who came to the ER complaining of an irregular heart beat. I remember him regaling me with stories about the Battle of Britain while his...
- Guest Blog: The Disabled Boat
Steve Gunther-Murphy works in IT Healthcare at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California. He's been writing poetry since the seventh grade, has had works published in a variety of magazines and poetry journals, and has given poetry readings in Hawaii,...
- Guest Blog: Johnny Doe
An emergency medical technician for 12 years, Yvonne Estrada currently works as an ambulance driver for the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Authority. "I have always written poems, and my job naturally presents adventures and situations...
- Guest Blog: Facts And Lies
David Watts’ second book of stories, The Orange Wire Problem, along with Bedside Manners, forms a body of work which explores the complexities of the art of medicine. He has published four books of poetry and a CD of “word-jazz.” Dr. Watts is an...
- Guest Blog: Cleft
Jon Neher is clinical professor of family medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and associate director of the Valley Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program. He is editor-in-chief of the newsletter Evidence-Based Practice and a...
Medicine
Guest Blog: Depression Session
Abby Caplin, MD, MA practices mind-body medicine and counseling in San Francisco. She helps people living with chronic medical conditions to lead empowered and vibrant lives, reclaiming their wholeness despite illness (http://www.abbycaplinmd.com/). Abby also offers a weblog, Permission to Heal, for people who are "up in the middle of the night or down in the middle of the day" because of illness. The following poem was first published in Pulse Magazine.
**
DEPRESSION SESSION
The chopped apple of her father's eye,
She tastes the grapes of her mother's drunken wrath
The barely visible slivers of silver-tongued almond
Needle her intestines as she savors
The seedless watermelon of fruitless friendships,
And endures the hard rind
Of a body gone awry,
To be chewed and chewed until swallowed or
Spat out. A salad of sorts
Surrounded by lemons
Home-grown, organic, bitter
And full of juice. She brings me a tough
Clear plastic bag filled with them
To our session.
"They're the last of the season," she tells me.
I pray this is true,
While at home, I pore through cookbooks,
Searching for yet another recipe.
- Abby Caplin
- The Importance Of Caring For Caregivers
Mr. B, the patient who first stirred my interest in family medicine, was a spry former World War Two fighter pilot who came to the ER complaining of an irregular heart beat. I remember him regaling me with stories about the Battle of Britain while his...
- Guest Blog: The Disabled Boat
Steve Gunther-Murphy works in IT Healthcare at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California. He's been writing poetry since the seventh grade, has had works published in a variety of magazines and poetry journals, and has given poetry readings in Hawaii,...
- Guest Blog: Johnny Doe
An emergency medical technician for 12 years, Yvonne Estrada currently works as an ambulance driver for the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Authority. "I have always written poems, and my job naturally presents adventures and situations...
- Guest Blog: Facts And Lies
David Watts’ second book of stories, The Orange Wire Problem, along with Bedside Manners, forms a body of work which explores the complexities of the art of medicine. He has published four books of poetry and a CD of “word-jazz.” Dr. Watts is an...
- Guest Blog: Cleft
Jon Neher is clinical professor of family medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and associate director of the Valley Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program. He is editor-in-chief of the newsletter Evidence-Based Practice and a...