Friday, April 12, 2013

Inspiration



Poetry stormed into my life in 2004 when I was not looking for it. I was trying to write up my PhD and failing. I met Julia Darling and her mission to bring poetry into healthcare changed the course of my career. My first poems were written from the research interviews with people with diabetes. I wrote them without thinking too much about what they were "doing” and wrote them in response to my need to be able to re-present the experiences of the people I had interviewed during my research.

Today I have gone back to that intent - closing the gap between patient and health care professional. Julia and I talked about that a lot and she saw poetry as powerful way of closing that gap. I still believe that gulf is still there and maybe I can do something about it.

This poem came from an article written by Havi Carel and Jane McNaughton in the Lancet that can be found here : http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2812%2961007-1/fulltext

The poem was inspired by Havi’s blog on the King’s Fund website yesterday and a conversation I had this afternoon with a Design PhD student.

 



Consultation

We seek to create
a shared world.
Reconciliation may lead
to different meanings.
Change the conversation.

This body lies before you
it is different, altered.
Sense and order need to be
made from this chaos.
 
We swing between
unknowing and understanding.

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