Levity
At the turn of every corner / I will be found out / You will see / The fraud in me
Art & Poetry in Medicine
Resident Physician Contributing Writer
Hackensack Meridian Health Ocean Medical Center
Vanessa Velez is a resident physician in psychiatry at Hackensack Meridian Health Ocean Medical Center in Brick, NJ.
The Newborn Perspective
Don’t you forget the first day of life, / You had turned upside down / And a tight slap upon your backside / Even to get you to breathe!
Life // Death
A flicker on the screen of the heartbeat, the first glimpse of my baby, I cry at the possibility of new life // An empty ultrasound, no heartbeat, a young mom cries; discovery of death amidst life.
Stargazer
Graduation gown: shiny, matching cap / She looks up / With aspirations
Selfish
I have a child, two months old / Who needs me, more than you need me. / I hear you crying, but it is her crying.
For the Love of Medicine
I spent years of my life preparing for you / before I even knew the ways you would make my soul come alive, / How much you would spark my curiosity and give me purpose
Housestaff, This House is Not Your Home: A Satire
University Hospital was erected some years after Man’s Greatest Hospital — with the vision of its leadership — to satisfy the needs of many. Namely, the financial supporters, trustees and patients of course. The hospital’s motto was to “Make hospitals great again.”
Vibrant
Older people aren’t sweet, precious or cute, / They’re wisest among us, without dispute. / A habit of ours is to condescend / When talking to people near life’s end.
Carrying On Via Intent Determination (COVID) 19
I am a 25-year-old resident physician of anesthesiology /
My sister and I are bonded by genetics, anatomy and biology /
I am a senior in high school at age 18. / My sister and I are bonded by love and everything in between.
Meditations on Medicine
A collection of poems entitled “Meditations on Medicine.”
The Applause
When the COVID-19 alarms were raised, I got ready for battle against the virus the world was fighting, only to later feel cut off from “the cause” as my efforts to volunteer outside of my daily work were denied time and again. Some might call it luck, but for me, it felt isolating.
Meditations on Family
A collection of poems entitled “Meditations on Family.”
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.”