Intima Archives | POETRY M-Z by title
Mama | Gialina Morten | SPRING 2021
Expressions of love and beauty for a mother coping with illness are sometimes complicated.
The Man From Sierra Leone | Zach Williamson | SPRING 2013
A case presentation and follow-up recommendations are told through rhyme.
Maroon | Elsa Asher | SPRING 2013
Miscarriage. The word known long before uttered.
Medical Elective in Vietnam | Violet Kieu | FALL 2020
Making sense of our place in the country of our ancestors
Meningioma | Lorri Danzig | FALL 2012
A tumor changes a life in an instant: this poem explores how to process such a powerful diagnosis.
The Metamorphosis (or Phronesis) | Antoinette Cooper | SPRING 2022
In a powerful prose poem, we vividly witness the changes in body and awareness that accompany a drastic illness and its treatment.
Metastatic | Nicholas Aldredge | SPRING 2021
A young patient’s illness prompts a young clinician to examine their perspective on life and treatment.
Mi Jardin / My Garden | Emma Rivera | FALL 2011
Nature and its straightforward beauty brings solace in any language.
Miscarriage at 12 Weeks | Christopher Dasaro | SPRING 2023
When the inexplicable happens, looking at the results brings reflection and some closure.
Monument | Joan Michelson | FALL 2020
A resounding monument of resistance with its fist held to the sky
Morning Walk With Arthritic Flare | Ashwini Bhasi | FALL 2019
Every part of the body is deeply felt, especially at the break of day.
Morphine | Caitlin Dwyer | FALL 2021
A family tries to recall the color of a newborn’s eyes as they hope for him to find his way back from sleep in intensive care.
Mother: A Kwansaba | Mikela Bjork | FALL 2021
Poetic form shapes our emotions: A poem of conflicted praise is shared for a declining parent.
MRI Safe | Katya Lavine | SPRING 2019
What precious things must be saved before an MRI?
My First Mask Was a White Coat | Lauren Fields | SPRING 2021
The facets and formation of identity and connection take center stage in a deep reflection
My Grandpa | Meghan Wang | SPRING 2013
Our memories live with those who love us.
My Favorite Patient | Sarah Harvin | SPRING 2020
Coming to terms with providing care to others can be an eye-opening experience.
My Favorite Piece | Jacob L. Freedman | SPRING 2015
Two doctors, twin brothers, and one Brahms' concerto add up to an evocative reflection.
The Nacirema | Joanna White | FALL 2015
The baffling medical rites and customs of an exotic culture
Needle | Sara Backer | FALL 2015
A description of needles in many forms, as they pierce through the various aspects of life.
Neuropathy | Xanthia Tucker | SPRING 2019
Numb fingers, numb heart - a provider struggles emotionally with a cancer patient.
New Epileptic | Greg Stidham | FALL 2017
Nerves, pens, and breath conspire to create a telling moment.
Night 4: What They Ask, What I Hear | James Wyshynski | SPRING 2020
Questions arise after a brain bleed.
No Expiration | Michal Coret | SPRING 2020
Taking away life, ushering in death
Not Every Homemade Thing | Katherine Seluja | SPRING 2017
Inviting Parkinsons over for dinner.
NSCLC | Sydney Sheltz-Kempf | FALL 2017
Knowledge and time change the way we witness a loved one's final moments.
The Number | Mariechen Puchert | SPRING 2021
An ICU team treats a patient who presents a chilling moral question.
Observations of a First-Year Neurology Resident | Michael Wynn | FALL 2022
Late-night walks on campus, sunsets from the pediatric floor, and the art of it all.
Ocean Bloom Across The Operating Table | Shabnam Shehan | SPRING 2017
A physician, a parent, and a shared grief.
Ode to Color | Karen George } SPRING 2014
Healing comes in many forms and myriad hues.
Ode to Melatonin | Jen Karetnick | SPRING 2017
Shakespeare frames dreamless sleep of a Parkinson's patient.
Ode on a Styrofoam Cup | Christopher Adamson | FALL 2017
Details come into sharp focus at a pivotal moment in time.
Oh, God | Sanjay Chainani | FALL 2018
An examination of a patient’s feelings and faith in the face of his imminent death.
Old Men | John C. Mannone | FALL 2016
Four friends meet at the diner for breakfast and puzzles
On Codes of Blue Colored in White | Riley Loftus | SPRING 2022
“The room clears and it is just you. You, a body that beats no more, and a ground littered in plastic…”
On the Evening News | Candice Shy Hooper | SPRING 2022
Tuning into a television advertisement leads to reflections about a loved one.
Operation Room | Emma Callen | FALL 2018
A request for compassion during a moment of vulnerability.
Order | Catherine Klatzker | FALL 2017
In chaos, sometimes all we have to hold onto is order.
Osteosarcoma | Sarah Shirley | SPRING 2017
Tangible loss cloaked with piercing love: Bravery once removed.
Our Altars Are Crowded | Elizabeth Farfán-Santos | SPRING 2022
The rituals we follow — through tears and sadness — celebrate those who passed and those who remain.
Out in the Open | Deborah Gorlin | FALL 2015
A description of a modern surgeon, a "latter day shaman," and his craft.
Outpatient Procedure | Emily Kerlin | FALL 2019
When things go wrong in a simple procedure, sometimes the most unorthodox treatment is the cure.
Overdue EPIC Health Maintenance | Jacqueline Redmer | SPRING 2022
A weaving of a patient’s reflections on her health with what appears in the medical chart.
Overnight Aubade | Cole W. Williams | SPRING 2021
A haunting early morning poem of fitful sleep and dreams.
Overwhelmed | Kendra Peterson | SPRING 2013
A patient-physician encounter of being presented with difficult news.
Oxygen | Hollis Kurman | FALL 2018
Coming to terms with the things we take for granted
Palliation | Sarah Shirley | SPRING 2017
A reflection of a lifetime, literally. The slightest minutiae of life grows in stature as one's own comes to a close.
Paper Armor | Cara Haberman | FALL 2020
Navigating a battleground at once strange and familiar
Parsonage-Turner: Pathologic Study | Schneider Rancy | FALL 2017
A meditation on the way our bodies work—or don't.
Pascal, the Hard Way | Barry Peters | SPRING 2019
On dying, belief, and a roll of the dice.
Paseo | Susan Keller | FALL 2022
A discouraged patient begins a new journey undergoing ECT and finds hope in the process.
Pathways | Elizabeth Adler | FALL 2015
A touching description of one's person pathway from health to sickness
Perfusion | Lois Leveen | FALL 2018
A portrait of a perfusionist, or cardiopulmonary bypass doctor, at work
The Phone | Samantha Greenberg | SPRING 2015
A simple act—like responding to a loved one who is ill—calls up conflicting emotions.
The Physician Bears Witness | Lorenzo R. Sewanan | FALL 2012
A look into the rich inner world of a physician, and its dynamic, ever-changing role, as a patient seeks a cure, an answer, and eventually some humanity
Pink Slip | Samantha Barrow | FALL 2014
Watching the body change at a moment of profound change.
Plague Doctors | Carla Barkman | FALL 2021
A doctor is also just a person, in costume, playing a part.
Pomegranate Protocol | Ceren Ege | FALL 2021
The pomegranate, like the Madeleine, sends this writer into memories of love, loss, family, and fruit.
Post-Call | Emily Sorg | SPRING 2014
A return to daily life, post-call, after witnessing a trauma.
Prayers for the Sick | Susan Baller-Shepard
All of a sudden, the vulnerability of a son, or your best friends, call into question what to do.
Pre-Elegy for John | Meghan Adler | FALL 2014
Grief poems are a way to say good-bye, especially when one can record the memories, like this poet did during a loved one's years of living with Parkinson's.
The Price of A Cure | Wendy French | SPRING 2015
Hunger, deconstructed: When there is a full menu of options but nothing on our plates.
Primary Colors | Fiona Sampey | SPRING 2023
Innocence: Watching a child pay homage in the only medium she knows.
Primum Non Nocere | Nina Solis | SPRING 2021
Behind a clinical interaction lies a glimpse into an unspoken medical assessment.
Procurement | Doug Hester | FALL 2014
Nature lives and breathes outside and inside the OR.
Protocols of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit | Zamina Mithani | FALL 2021
Word play and making associations lift the ordinary into extraordinary.
Proxy | Gloria Heffernan | SPRING 2021
The weight of making decisions about a loved one’s approaching death.
Push | Ocean | SPRING 2018
Engagement promotes a poignant exchange filled with anticipation and prescience.
Refugees | Brian Ascalon Roley | FALL 2022
Three generations discover a common theme: When surviving hardships, strength will always prevail.
Rehab | Tom Whayne | FALL 2013
All of the paraphernalia of recovery may not equip us for the changes that occur.
Relapse | Carolyn Welch | SPRING 2018
A mother expresses the depth of mental illness in the back drop of the ordinary.
Reminders of Home | Tulsi Patel | SPRING 2023
Tall trees, an aortic dissection: Images that conflict, yet come together, in a father’s diagnosis.
The Resident and His Dreams | Jude Okonkwo | FALL 2022
Running from love, or running out of it: Processing surreal, random moments during medical training.
Risk Benefit Ratio | Terry Cox-Joseph | FALL 2020
Chocolate bars and a first smile in forever - the moments that matter
Room 915 | Emily Yuan | SRING 2013
A hospitalized man reveals what's hidden beneath his off-putting exterior.
Rorschach | Irene Sherlock | SPRING 2021
An unassuming snapshot of a therapist’s office and patients.
R&R | Richard Kravitz | SPRING 2019
Holiday greetings aren’t always cheerful: A patient’s cycle of emotions on Christmas is borne by the provider.
Running the Scans Gauntlet | Amy Haddad | SPRING 2022
Monotonous and often harrowing, the experience of getting a CT scan can be poetically codified.
The Sculptor and The Scalpel | Nilofar Hassanzadeh | FALL 2018
A surgeon is an artist and a performer with graceful, sometimes mortal, strokes.
The Secret Keeper | Emily De Ferrari | SPRING 2023
Now the stakes are higher to hold the reminders of a loss with only those who are sympathetic.
Self Portrait as an Anatomy Lab Cadaver | Lisa Kerr Dunn | FALL 2017
Dissecting the misplaced ownership of women's reproductive organs.
Self Portrait of the Artist as Medical Student | Anna Dovre | FALL 2021
Listening to the heart—literally and figuratively—leads to a riff on routine.
7:30 Start | Photine Liakos | FALL 2021
A quiet moment of reflection before a surgeon’s work begins.
She Waits | Sheila Kelly | FALL 2017
Commitment to care takes a toll, even for a daughter who's there at the ready.
The Sick Room | Sarah Schlegel | SPRING 2020
An enriching perspective on the experience of time and space.
Shoot Out | Susan Thomas | SPRING 2022
Watched what happens to someone trapped in the crossfire of a pandemic encounter.
Short Call | Teddy Goetz | SPRING 2021
A mother welcomes her premature baby into the world with uncertainty.
Signing the Order | Virginia Boudreau | SPRING 2016
A graceful account of the difficulty of end of life conversations.
Six Ways of Looking at a Friend | Thomas Nguyen | SPRING 2016
There is more than one way to perceive a struggle.
Sleeping Breath | Katya Lavine | FALL 2021
Food and family: While we wait for death, there are memories that nourish us (along with the pizza).
Slippage | Larry Oakner | SPRING 2020
Memory’s elusive vapor trail: A meaningful and creative commentary on the aging process.
Sofia, Mayday | Marta Christov | FALL 2021
The purple of iodine fades with the fallout.
The Softest Cloth | Joanne Clarkson | FALL 2023
The skill of a caretaker is how they distract from the obvious yet bequeath tender touches.
Son Suture | Andrew Taylor-Troutman | FALL 2021
Healing takes many forms.
Sovereign and Severe | Woods Nash | FALL 2016
Reflecting on being transported to life in Moshi, Tanzania.
The Spaces Between | Jennifer Li | SPRING 2021
Contemplating diaspora and mortality during a patient assessment.
Specimen A | Tharshika Thangarasa | FALL 2017
Anatomy lessons provide more than just a clinical education when one takes a moment to reflect.
Speed Dating by Type | Doug Hester SPRING 2015
Blood group systems and red blood cells, reimagine
Speedy Recovery | Harry Leeds | SPRING 2022
Figuring out how to get through to a patient sometimes takes smarts instead of strength.
Stillborn | Meera Sheffrin | FALL 2022
Some days contain details and conversations that will never be forgotten.
Stingray | Samantha Stewart | SPRING 2022
Revelations about a father’s tall tale have reverberations long after the fact.
Survivors| Susan Kaplan | SPRING 2013
A mother reflects upon her premature twins.
Suture | Orly Farber | SPRING 2021
A medical student lovingly reflects on the act of suturing.
Swedish Fish Rescues | Katy Giebenhain | FALL 2019
The smallest things can get you through a medical moment.
Tandem | Joan Michelson | FALL 2016
Turn of phase: The turning wheels of the bicycle, of marriage, and of life.
Tata | Christopher Adamson | FALL 2018
Remembrances—of a grandmother, a philosopher—make for a lasting memory.
Teatime | Catherine Read | SPRING 2022
When Death comes to your door, would you invite him in for a cup of Darjeeling?
Tell Me What You Know | Tiffany Xie | SPRING 2022
What are the most important details a doctor should know?
Tense | Anne Vinsel | FALL 2016
Love inside and outside of time.
There is a Dreadful Hell Within Me | Wendy French | SPRING 2016
A line from a long-ago poet prompts a meditation on madness.
There is Nothing Wrong With You | Priya Sury | FALL 2021
What medicine can only apologize for.
They Sold My Brain to Science | Sarah Sparks | SPRING 2018
Funny business informs this humorous take on organ dissection and preservation.
The Things We Ask | Julie Sumner | FALL 2022
A caregiver answers a dying patient’s last question.
Thinner | Lauren Catlett | FALL 2015
Illness transforms the body; our memories strike us when we see what it does.
This Time Last Year | Chloe Vaughn | SPRING 2021
Unexpected pandemic moments of joy.
Three Home Visits | Beth Lown | SPRING 2019
A provider’s poised reflection on home visit encounters.
Three Months... | Lynn Pattison | SPRING 2016
Three months as a beginning of something or the end of something greater than what came before?
Through Damp Muslin | Rodolfo Villarreal-Calderon
Anatomy lessons become an intimate commentary on shared spaces in medicine
To a Body Donor | Adam Lalley | FALL 2020
How we approach the dead represents how we will treat the living—with respect, care and some self-awareness.
To Lose Like a Nurse | Siobhan McKenna | FALL 2022
How grief embraces you, even when it isn’t yours to hold.
To the Woman at My Mother’s Funeral | Kathryn Paul | SPRING 2022
A death at home is not necessarily a gentle one.
Trendelenburg | Arany Uthayakumar | SPRING 2020
Inspiration strikes when the world is upside down: In the Trendelenburg position, the body is laid supine, or flat on the back on a 15–30 degree incline with the feet elevated above the head.
Triage | Daniel Ginsburg | FALL 2020
Dancing one moment, down for the count in the next one: A watchful father measures those moments in his son’s life.
Trisomy 18 | Kevin Wang | SPRING 2019
An unflinchingly direct yet eloquent form of heartfelt presence for people with genetic disorders.
The Tunnel | Lisa Alexander Baron | SPRING 2018
Two children visit their mothers at the sanatorium.
Uncontrollable | Sara Ethier | SPRING 2023
When a child speaks the truth, ‘fixing’ or ‘controlling’ seems beside the point.
Under Morning Sun in a Cloudless Sky | Ellen Sazzman | FALL 2016
Weather forecast: A journey of life, loss and ownership.
Underground | Caitlin Gildrien | FALL 2018
The myth of Persephone plays a haunting part in a medical procedure
Untitled | Sollette Doucet | FALL 2018
A prescription for treatment doesn’t always mean you’re cured.
Untitled, For a Bird | Samantha Stewart | SPRING 2023
Frail sparrow, dead wren: discerning the meaning in the small and vulnerable of the world.
Vanishing Point | Ting Gou | FALL 2016
A physician at sea appreciates daily life.
Veterinary Lessons | Jane Desmond | FALL 2019
We are able to give our pets a 'better death' than we can give human beings.
Vestibular | Bekka DePew | SPRING 2017
Love catches you when you fall down.
The Veteran | Zainab Mabizari | SPRING 2021
The compelling portrayal of internal and external dynamics in military and global medicine.
Visible Signs | Meg Lindsay | FALL 2018
Small talk with the oncologist can’t mask what’s really being said.
The Waiting | Dorothy Woodman | SPRING 2013
We have all been there, in that room, not fully understanding why.
Waiting | Sophia Wilson | FALL 2021
The ocean is just as impatient.
Want/Change | Caroline Randall Williams | FALL 2011
Nature and the cycle of the seasons open our eyes to endings and beginnings.
Washing with Alzheimer's | Christine Nichols | FALL 2014
The learning curve of illness extends to our day-to-day rituals
Watching a Synesthete IRL | Jennifer Wolkin | FALL 2018
Travel through the different seasons of sounds as the human body flows through digestion.
We Almost Lost You | Varsha Kukafka | FALL 2020
Memories of another pandemic jump generations for a sweet epiphany.
Wernicke-Korsakoff | Sarah Shirley | SPRING 2017
Teasing out the person from the illness. Kübler-Ross transitions at its best.
What Do the Dying Want? | Sara Baker | SPRING 2015
Time presents us with many questions we struggle to answer. This one may be the hardest.
What’s Left of My Friend With Emphysema | Nancy Dimsdale | FALL 2019
Inhale, exhale: Breathing through difficult realizations.
What Remains | Joan Baranow | SPRING 2023
Loss entails discarding and recovering all of the elements that make up a life.
What Was, Still Is | Alida Rol | FALL 2018
This memory poem looks back with compassion at a long-ago procedure.
What Will I Do With You | Charlotte Friedman | SPRING 2018
Nuance and narrative: A daughter tries to come to terms with her mother's illness and impending death.
When He Found Out | Jennifer Adaeze Anyaegbunam | FALL 2011
Parents may not share the news about a death in the family, but that can make the telling more charged.
When I Finally Take the Antidepressants | Karen Sharpe | SPRING 2021
Take in an emotional dance between a patient and medication.
When Patients Die | Nancy Smith | FALL 2020
Sometimes it’s a glimpse into a quiet moment on the wards that is most profound.
Where Are You, Mary Oliver? | Katharine Lawrence | SPRING 2020
During a time of fear, confinement and news of the pandemic, we long for a closer connection to nature and to our muses.
Why I Changed My Ringtone | Charlotte Jones | SPRING 2017
A compelling way to say goodbye.
With Gadolinium Enhancement | Jacqueline Redmer | SPRING 2023
Recognizing the enormity of what’s wrong and expressing it to a patient makes time a difficult collaborator.
With My 20-Year-Old Son in the Eye Doctor's Office | Richard Kravitz | FALL 2022
Loving, aging, holding on and letting go: A father’s perspective during an appointment.
Worst Shift | Dana Reeher | FALL 2022
How does it begin, and does it ever end?
Wreath For My Father | Mistee St. Clair | SPRING 2023
The intimacy of a daily task has impact, occasionally forever.
Writing Elegies Like Robert Hass | Jenny Qi | FALL 2015
Memory's power in the face of grief.
X-Ray | Harriet Heydemann | FALL 2018
Shadowy and smoky, X-rays reveal the mysteries of a body.
Young Woman Listens to Cyndi Lauper During Dialysis | Simona Carini
Music to her ears: The critical sense of time in a patient setting plays out in this reflection.
Zodiac | VyVy Trinh | SPRING 2013
The stars have written many stories. Some endings are harder to see.