Even with the astonishing knowledge of medicine, the anatomy of an illness cannot fully be known from the outside. It takes an act of tender and careful acquaintance. And the only one who can truly map the illness of a living being is the occupant of an ill body. The geography of sickness is mysterious: its borders begin vague, its peaks conceal its valleys, its oceans rove and deepen and rearrange patterns of flood and firm ground.
Read moreThe Unexpected Labor of Caregiving by Ann E. Green
The poem titled, “To the Woman at My Mother’s Funeral Who Thought It Was So Lovely that My Mother Died at Home” by Kathryn Paul (Spring 2022 Intima, Poetry), circles around my mind days after reading it. Paul’s poem eloquently speaks back to the assumption that it is always good to die at home, that home deaths are always peaceful. The literal hands-on work of caregiving—the cleaning of blood, mucus, urine and feces — is unspoken and generally done by women, whether paid or unpaid, and the writer, who in her bio calls herself “a survivor of many things” captures this in her poem.
Read moreHow We Doctors Learn How to Act and React by USC Keck School of Medicine medical student Angela Tang-Tan
I am at the point in medical school that I can forget how strange a place the hospital is. Most days, I pre-round around 5am and I leave as the pink and gold of sunset reflects in the windows of the inpatient tower. I no longer smell the antiseptic that pervades the air. I write my notes oblivious to the announcements of “code blue” or “stroke team activation” playing over the intercom. When I walk through the hallways, there is purpose in my strides. The core clinical rotations that every medical student undergoes (family medicine, surgery, pediatrics, etc.) are a time for exploration and the forging of identity. We learn: This is how doctors act and react.
Read morePoetry and Palliative Care, a reflection by writer Dan Yashinsky
I’m writing in response to Danielle Snyderman’s Field Notes essay “Not Yet, The Epilogue” (Spring 2021 Intima). I wrote the poem “The Trail to Ahous Bay” to read aloud to my friend Joan Bodger. She was in the palliative care unit of Tofino Hospital on Vancouver Island. I had come from Toronto to visit with her, and to say goodbye. I was staying on Vargas Island, a short boat ride from Tofino, and had taken the cross-island hike that became the poem.
Read moreHow to Write About Cancer: How Poetry Can Break the Rules by writer Lynne Byler
Recently, I read Adam Conner’s short story “How to Write about Your Cancer” (Fall 2022 Intima) with amusement and recognition. And if I transform the rules in it to a scorecard, my poem, “Minds Go Where Bodies Can't” ends in the red.
Read moreListening to Beethoven: A Reflection on Professional Responsibility and Personal Recognition by poet Susan Carlson
“I like Beethoven the best!” is a declaration made by a patient of Mitali Chaudhary, as she readies to leave his hospital room. A busy senior medical resident at the University of Toronto, Chaudhary juggles many demanding responsibilities with her desire to get to know this elderly patient. In her Field Notes essay titled “Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5,” published in Intima’s Fall 2023 issue, she recalls how she’d tried to get her patient to respond to questions about symptomatology, all the while aware that twenty-three other patients – along with a group of junior residents and medical students – were awaiting her time and attention. In that moment, she finds herself turning away from an opportunity for a personal interaction with him in order to ensure she manages her tasks appropriately.
Read moreThe Individual Nature of Care by Joanne Clarkson
A nurse examines a clinical encounter through her poetry and appreciates the individual nature of care.
Read moreOn Work-Worn Hands and Gestures of Love, a short essay by poet and educator, Joan Baranow
A writer and poet honors the memory of her mother by finding the parallels between her own work and the story of another mother and daughter.
Read moreOn Knowing
A nurse ponders the role of hope in the clinical encounter and whether the holy can be found within the realm of medicine.
Read moreStories Make Us Human by Krista Puttler
“Ms. Paul, I can’t give you any more pain medication, it isn’t time.”
Edith’s eyes were closed. She was in the single patient room again, the one that had an anteroom with an extra sink that connected to her room by a sliding glass door. The residents always made sure both sets of sliding doors were closed before talking about her.
Read moreAbsences in Cortney Davis' "It Was the Second Patient of the Day"
A writer and father ponders the power of absence in the clinical encounter, as well as the power of presence.
Read moreLet Me Speak My Free Mind into You: Seeking Genuine Connection in Medical Practice
A medical student examines two poems published in this journal in order to advocate for genuine connection in medical practice between patients and physicians.
Read moreWhen Magic Meets Medicine: A Reflection on the Power of Play
Through poetry, a writer and community-based coach appreciates the magic at the borderland of the known and unknown.
Read moreThe Sense of Being Lost in the Face of Illness and Death
How does grace manifest itself in the clinical encounter? And what of eulogy and testimony? A psychiatrist-writer explores two poems published in this journal to find deeper meaning.
Read moreSeeing Through
A retired nurse remarks on what she has witnessed in the hospital setting via studio art and poetry published in this very journal.
Read moreHow Poetry Changed My Practice
A neurologist meditates on his “medical metamorphosis” into a physician—and how poetry served as a lifeline for inspiration and growth throughout it all.
Read moreUsing Laughter to Face the Darkness
A psychiatrist contemplates what can be learned from success and failure—and how laughter sometimes is the best medicine.
Read moreI Am Moments / I Am Nature
Through collage art and poetry, a pathologist comes to understand that our anatomical selves are made up of the same building blocks that comprise all life on earth.
Read moreCaregiving: When the Patient is Your Mother. A Reflection by poet Brian Ascalon Roley
A writer revisits his childhood memories and, in doing so, reflects on the evolving relationship between parent and child as both grow older.
Read moreTaking Him Apart Took Me Apart, Too: On medical school and anatomy class by Chrissie DyBuncio
A former physician reflects on the rite of passage undergone by all medical students: cadaver dissections in anatomy lab.
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