I was a poet and didn ’t know it…
My poem entitled “Then and Now”, written at the height of the Covid Pandemic, has been published in Ascensus, the Weill Cornell Medicine Journal of the Humanities. It’s an in-house publication, started in 2013 and run by medical students to showcase the humanities at our medical school.
I was privileged to give a reading of my poem at the Ascensus 11th edition launch reception last evening. It was a joy to be with so many artistically minded medical colleagues, whose works ranged from poetry to prose, photography, painting and music. A special shout out to Courtney Lee for her moving poem “Hoarder”, to Koianka Tencheva, whose poem “My Dowry” brought tears to my eyes and to med student J Lind , whose emotional song lyrics were backed by some serious geetar playing. (You can find more on Spotify…)
Congrats to the Ascensus editorial team for another great edition of this wonderful journal, and to all my colleagues on their submissions.
THEN AND NOW
Then
We lived in sweet, willful ignorance.
Nanoscopic particles bent on our destruction existed, surely,
But attacked predictably, and only once a year
Allowing us to plan and fortify
With protein shields delivered through ethanol swabbed skin.
Few fell
But those who did
Passed within the soft embrace of love
Untainted by fear.
Then
We lived and moved in shared spaces
Breathing the same air,
Voicing the same songs,
Touching without fear,
Hands grasping hands,
Ar...
Source: The Blog That Ate Manhattan - Category: Primary Care Authors: Margaret Polaneczky, MD Tags: Uncategorized Covid poem COvid poetry pandemic poem Pandemic poetry Source Type: blogs
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