Meditations on Family
A collection of poems entitled “Meditations on Family.”
Art & Poetry in Medicine
Resident Physician Contributing Writer
University Hospital of Krakow, Poland
Adrian Poniatowski is native New Yorker and a physician poet. He studied history at Cornell University before going on to finish medical school in Poland at Jagiellonian University. He received an appointment to stay on at his alma mater as Lecturer in Pathophysiology, in addition to his duties as an intern physician at the University Hospital of Krakow, Poland. He draws inspiration from his Catholic faith and long walks spent meditating on the sublime beauty of daily life. His artistic motto is Ars neptis Dei, a paraphrase from the
Divine Comedy proclaiming that “Art is the granddaughter of God.”
Meditations on God
A collection of poems entitled “Meditations on God.”
“PGY3”: How I Coped in the Medical ICU by Making Music
Listen to the track “PGY3” by Dr. Roy Souaid and his band “John Lebanon.” The song started in New Orleans during the American College of Physicians National Conference in May 2018 and has been a yearlong project inspired by street buskers, hospital sounds and jazz. It captures the medical resident’s work flow and is set in the medical intensive care unit at the Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.
Leaving My Heart at the Door
At first, my heart pauses: frozen from shock. / But, within a few seconds, I start to take stock.
The Telling
I recall my father sitting on a small stool in the kitchen / dialing friends and family, one by one, rippling outward
No Insurance
my patient does not have insurance / he asks me to address his concerns
Healing in Relationship Lies
Illness lies hidden in our ways / Influenced by the unconscious gaze.
T-Cell
“One” / It read. / Unassuming in black and white
A Second Home (2019)
Scared and frightened, we came in as interns / We had the knowledge, but we needed direction
I Seize
I seize. / With emotion, not motor.
Pondering the Human Experience: A Quartet of Poems
To help a soul / To heal a wound / To hold a hand / To walk again
A Story of Artistic Reclamation (2019)
Here I am, come and get me! A playful provocation we have all used with much more than literal meaning as a mantra. But going through the rigors, chills and metaphorical bacteremia of medical education, I lost some of the pieces that made me confident to be myself.
Fellow Physician Contributing Writer
Johns Hopkins University / National Institutes of Health
Dr. Michael Barbato is a pediatric hematology oncology fellow at Johns Hopkins University/National Institutes of Health. He is specializing in epigenetic research and considering a bone marrow transplant clinical focus. He is interested in advocating for maintaining professional and personal life balance in medicine and physician burnout. He is particularly passionate about the arts and how they can be used as expressions in medicine. He can be found on Instagram @mibarbato.