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Medicine and Meaning
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    • Issue One: Winter/Spring 2020
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Poetry Archive

Young blonde woman meditating in the park

At Peace and Free

I dreamt I had a garden in the backyard of a home that doesn’t actually exist.
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Cardiac surgeon or interns holding heart during open heart surgery. Heart transplant or artificial heart transplant operation. Surgical tools, gloves.

Heart Transplant

It is a long story. This is a short version: I was about to die.
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Branch of pink roses

Lifelines

It’s times like these, with the certainty of our assumptions, no longer certain,that bring a richer appreciation for the touchstones…
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Blurry vintage shadows silhouettes of mother and daughter walking in black and white

Moments in Passing

I walk past the morgue in the hospital
Underbelly on my way to the key shop,
Resigned to replacing the keys…
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In the Hospital Sick Male Patient Sleeps on the Bed. Heart Rate Monitor Equipment is on His Finger.

My Patient

“Can you please let me go?”
She pleaded with tears in her eyes
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Image representing the hands of God

Ode to Blessed Assurance

I felt the ache in my head,
The cranial vessels’ pulsing beat,
My restless, trembling legs in bed,
The tingling in the…
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Illustration of Corona virus

Haikus

high tech and high touch
treatment scans and MRI’s
where is the high touch
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Hand flip wooden cube with word "change" to "chance", Personal development and career growth or change yourself concept

Phased Out?

Princess bedside and stand-up telephones. Landlines. Ma Bell. Telephone booths. Victrolas. 78 and 45 rpm records. Ash trays. Analog photography.Alarm clocks. Walkman….
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Blurred crowd of unrecognizable at the street

The Crowd.

On a lazy Sunday,
I sit in the sun,
reading a book by the swing.
Some shadows watch over the unturned…
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Shot of an empty university classroom after the cancellation of schools regarding covid 19

The Healer

There are days I am disillusioned,
When I am bereft of my purpose,
Alone in my office,
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hands of a young girl put clothes in the washing machine drum

The Laundry Cycle

Do you ever feel like a shirt,
With wooden clips pinning your shoulders to the line,
Left blowing in the wind…
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Dramatic Black and white image of Tired, overworked, exhausted health care workers outside the hospital looking at the camera

To the Front-Line Healthcare Providers in the Time of COVID-19

In ancient times the knights rode out
to cheers and loud applause,
To fight our foes, those armed heroes, took…
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medical white coat isolated on black background

White Coat Anonymity

Do you notice me?
Do you see my soul?
Or does attire blind you?
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Image of a blackboard with yellow arrow labeled Change

Change

When I am old, I want to look back
And feel like my life really mattered.
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Illustration of medical forms

Epic Haikus

Epic, open, please!
Numerous charts to complete.
Will you ever load?
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Picture of orange and blue Female Atlas in stained-glass style.

I, Atlas

Beautiful life so often forsaken
Let sounds of the night gently awaken
The burning desire to live
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Abstract blur of hospital corridor

A Mother

A mother in the NICU
waiting room thinks aloud,
If God were listening
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Abstract Heart painted with acrylic colors on paper. With red, pink and purple.

Musings

I do not understand love, as mightily as I strive
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Blurred picture of river waves

River

Year after year flowing through halls
A healing river of humanity
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Phone: (501) 686-7000
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