Poetry in Medicine: Direction

[This month I return to poetry that seeks to “heal with words.” The poem below is by Carolyn L. Tipton, Ph.D., poet, translator, and professor, living in Berkeley, California. She has translated two books of poems by Spanish poet Rafael Alberti: the first, To Painting, won the National Translation Award; the second, Returnings: Poems of Love and Distance, won the Cliff Becker Translation Prize. She is also the author of The Poet of Poet Laval, a collection of her own poetry, recently published by Salmon Poetry of County Clare, Ireland. She has been awarded fellowships from both the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. She earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley, where she has taught for many years in the Fall Program for Freshmen. She also taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and San Francisco State University. Referencing the common compulsion these days to “downsize,” this poem reminds us that the moment of the “pandemic now passing” is precisely the wrong time for a “death clean.” The appropriate response, like that of flowers sensing drought, is to live even more “extravagantly” and “fully.” Such would be a better New Year’s resolution! The editorial assistance of Cathy Chance Harvey, Ph.D., of Tylertown in the preparation of this poem is gratefully acknowledged. Physicians are invited to submit poems for publication in the Journal either by email at drluciuslampton@gmail.com or regular mail to the Journal, attention: Dr. Lampton.]—Ed.