Articulations: The Body and Illness in Poetry. - book reviews

Journal of Family Practice, August, 1995 by Warren L. Holloman

Articulations is a rich anthology of poems covering a wide range of medical topics. Physicians, patients, and families will all find their experiences described and interpreted within this volume. There is at least one poem about every major disease as well as the most familiar, difficult, and rewarding clinical situations. Perhaps reflecting Mukand's own experience as a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, entire chapters are devoted to the body, physical disability, and social issues. But there are chapters on other topics of particular interest to family physicians, such as physicians' perspectives, patients' perspectives, women's health, mental illness, and death.

Over the years, I've observed that physicians read poetry for lots of reasons. Some are truly gifted in this area, as either poets or interpreters of poetry, or both. Others read for the pleasure of it: seeing a clever turn of phrase or a provocative juxtaposition of images. A third group appreciates the economy of poetry, where penetrating insights are usually compressed into a few lines of a single page. A busy cardiologist tells me he does not have time to read books but that every day he takes a couple of minutes to absorb a poem, which invariably gives him enough insights and ideas to chew on in the little lulls that come while waiting for an elevator or walking from one patient to the next. Physicians from all three levels will value this collection. The best contemporary poets and physician-poets are represented here, from James Dickey and Sharon Olds to Jack Coulehan and John Stone. There are striking images and memorable phrases that challenge one's perspective. And there is a lot to chew on.

A patient getting a cardiogram worries that "my number will be up before my kindergarten son even graduates from high school." One patient confesses to a private ritual in the bathroom of his doctor's office--"You lift the chalice and toast the long life of your friend there in the mirror"--before handing the urine specimen to the nurse and marveling that the doctor will try to foretell his future from such a lowly source. Another patient sadly describes his bed as "a garden where nothing grows." Some patients and family members cope with fear of the unfamiliar by correlation to the familiar. A woman whose father has just undergone major surgery takes solace that "the roads to my father's heart are newly paved." A woman who has just undergone ultrasound chooses to see it this way: "They slather my breast with jelly the way I've buttered a lifetime of sandwiches."

Many poems capture the sights, sounds, and smells of the hospital. A visitor complains that "the hospital smell combs my nostrils." A patient with AIDS declares that "we all hate hospitals," from "the pretense of order" to "the urgent, joyless footsteps of nurses." A visitor wonders how nurses carry so much pain on their slender waists. Another visitor is haunted by the sound of a barking dog that echoes in the corridor around the clock. The source of the sound is a patient: "The nurses know it's the sound of her lungs going." Yet another describes "the ancient rusted-grey radiator" in the ICU waiting room that has been "wailing all night: a pounding squall, followed by high-pitched shrieks." With surgeonlike efficiency, a mechanic eventually "kneels...before the ailing radiator, and then, with a wrench, reaches in."

Many poems focus on the stresses, strains, and temptations of the medical profession: "with the hours they keep, they need the drugs more than anyone." One poem describes a surgeon proudly polishing his Craftsman tools. Another admonishes doctors to "fear arrogance more than cardiac arrest." Doctors are trained to speak a language no one else can understand and are asked to give answers that neither they nor their patients want to hear: "the question might be so simple, so clear that you're unprepared to answer."

Physicians who like poetry will love this book. Those who do not like poetry might even like it. Mukand has selected poems that cut to the chase of the experience of being a physician. Every physician will recognize here the challenges, joys, and sorrows that make medicine such a difficult and rewarding profession.