Physician and poet Rafael Campo has published several collections of poetry and prose. In his poem “What I Would Give,” Campo outlines the “usual prescription” given by physician to patient: “reassurance that their lungs sound fine” or “that the mole they’ve noticed change is not a melanoma…” He instead would like to offer them “my astonishment at sudden rainfall like the whole world weeping” and “the joy I felt while staring in your eyes as you learned epidemiology.”
Campo’s poem makes me think about all that we give to patients with each interaction, each hospitalization, over decades of caring for a patient and their family. Should we reorient the standard prescription for cure? As a patient, do you get reassurance from your medical provider? Comfort? What would be the best prescription?
Writing Prompt: If you could give anything to your patients, what would you give? As a patient, what do you expect to receive from your physician? What gives you comfort? Write for 10 minutes.
You can read more about Rafael Campo and his thoughts on the intersection of poetry and medicine in this interview with Cortney Davis, whose work I’ve featured on a previous Narrative Medicine Monday.