Medicine
Cortney Davis is the author of four poetry collections, most recently "Leopold's Maneuvers," winner of the 2003 Prairie Schooner Poetry Prize. She is co-editor of two anthologies of poetry and prose by nurses, "Between the Heartbeats" and "Intensive Care," and is the author of two non-fiction books, "I Knew a Woman: the Experience of the Female Body" and "The Heart's Truth: Essays on the Art of Nursing." A nurse practitioner, she is the poetry editor of the literary journal Alimentum: the Literature of Food. Her website is http://www.cortneydavis.com/. The following piece was first published in the Bellevue Literary Review (edited by physician-author Danielle Ofri, who also wrote a guest blog last month).
**
I WANT TO WORK IN A HOSPITAL
where it's okay
to climb into bed with patients
and hold them -
pre-op, before they lose
their legs or breasts, or after,
to tell them
they are still whole.
Or post-partum,
when they have just returned
from that strange garden,
or when they are dying,
as if somehow because I stay
they are free to go,
taking with them
the color of my eyes.
I want the daylight
I walk out into
to become the flashlight they carry,
waving it
so God might find them
as we go together
into their long night.
- Cortney Davis
- Guest Video/poem: Reference Range
Veneta Masson is a registered nurse and poet living in Washington, DC. She has written three books of essays and poems, drawing on her experiences over twenty years as a family nurse practitioner and director of an inner-city clinic. Her poetry collection...
- Guest Blog: A Snail's Pace
Eric Cheng is a primary care physician for the VA, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at UCLA, a devoted husband and father, and an occasional poet. He currently lives in Los Angeles, where he draws inspiration from his patients' incredible...
- Guest Blog: Writing Poems On Antidepressants
Nikki Moustaki is the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry and is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. She has taught at New York University, Indiana University, and the New School. The following poem was first...
- 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: The Rudeness
Rick Kempa lives in Rock Springs, Wyoming, where he directs the Honors Program at Western Wyoming College. "The Rudeness," first published in the Bellevue Literary Review, dates from a time a few years ago when his mother, who is afflicted with Alzheimer's,...
Medicine
Guest Blog: I Want to Work in A Hospital
Cortney Davis is the author of four poetry collections, most recently "Leopold's Maneuvers," winner of the 2003 Prairie Schooner Poetry Prize. She is co-editor of two anthologies of poetry and prose by nurses, "Between the Heartbeats" and "Intensive Care," and is the author of two non-fiction books, "I Knew a Woman: the Experience of the Female Body" and "The Heart's Truth: Essays on the Art of Nursing." A nurse practitioner, she is the poetry editor of the literary journal Alimentum: the Literature of Food. Her website is http://www.cortneydavis.com/. The following piece was first published in the Bellevue Literary Review (edited by physician-author Danielle Ofri, who also wrote a guest blog last month).
**
I WANT TO WORK IN A HOSPITAL
where it's okay
to climb into bed with patients
and hold them -
pre-op, before they lose
their legs or breasts, or after,
to tell them
they are still whole.
Or post-partum,
when they have just returned
from that strange garden,
or when they are dying,
as if somehow because I stay
they are free to go,
taking with them
the color of my eyes.
I want the daylight
I walk out into
to become the flashlight they carry,
waving it
so God might find them
as we go together
into their long night.
- Cortney Davis
- Guest Video/poem: Reference Range
Veneta Masson is a registered nurse and poet living in Washington, DC. She has written three books of essays and poems, drawing on her experiences over twenty years as a family nurse practitioner and director of an inner-city clinic. Her poetry collection...
- Guest Blog: A Snail's Pace
Eric Cheng is a primary care physician for the VA, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at UCLA, a devoted husband and father, and an occasional poet. He currently lives in Los Angeles, where he draws inspiration from his patients' incredible...
- Guest Blog: Writing Poems On Antidepressants
Nikki Moustaki is the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry and is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. She has taught at New York University, Indiana University, and the New School. The following poem was first...
- 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: The Rudeness
Rick Kempa lives in Rock Springs, Wyoming, where he directs the Honors Program at Western Wyoming College. "The Rudeness," first published in the Bellevue Literary Review, dates from a time a few years ago when his mother, who is afflicted with Alzheimer's,...