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Description: 

An immersive reading of A Cup of Chai by Grace Ro with reflection on food, artificial nutrition, voice, and proxy decision makers. 

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

Poem: https://ars-medica.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2705/546 

References:

Ro, G. (2026). A Cup of Chai. Ars Medica, 20(1), 2 pp. Retrieved from https://ars-medica.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2705

Doximity profile: https://www.doximity.com/profiles/41f2b871-6817-4978-be66-72fe5825ccb4/view

Linkedin profile: www.linkedin.com/in/gracer128 

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Description: 

An immersive reading of Morning Tea by Michael L. Wynn with reflection on atrial fibrillation, strokes, space and time.

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work: 

https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000214487 

References:

Wynn ML. Morning Tea. Neurology. 2025 Dec 23;105(12):e214487. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000214487. Epub 2025 Nov 20. PMID: 41264895.

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Description: 

An immersive reading of Echo by Wendy Wisner with reflection on hearts, love, and architecture. 

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

References:

Wisner W. Echo. JAMA. 2026;335(17):1538. doi:10.1001/jama.2026.1502 

Website: https://www.wendywisner.com/

Book: https://www.amazon.com/New-Life-Poems-Wendy-Wisner/dp/1960329553

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Description: 

An immersive reading of Bargaining by Jacob M. Appel with reflection on deals, education, intellectual pursuits and pragmatic activities.

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

https://www.alphaomegaalpha.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/pp15_APPLE_PHAROS_WINT26.pdf  

 Appel, Jacob M. Bargaining. The Pharos. Winter 2026. 

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Description: 

An immersive reading of The Republic of Rumor by David A. Lee with reflection on trust, the carnivalesque, social media, digital platforms, and misinformation.  

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

Poem: https://www.alphaomegaalpha.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/pp50_51_LEE_PHAROS_WINT26.pdf 

Lee, David A. The Republic of Rumor. The Pharos. Winter 2026.

References: 

Tandar C, Lin J, Stanford F. Combating medical misinformation and rebuilding trust in the USA. The Lancet Digital Health, 2024; 6, e773-e774

Alsan M, Cutler DM. Prescription for Division—Healing the Growing Gap in Physician Trust. JAMA Health Forum. 2025;6(12):e256765. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2025.6765

Saad  L . Americans' ratings of US professions stay historically low. Published January 13, 2025. Accessed April 12, 2026. https://news.gallup.com/poll/655106/americans-ratings-professions-stay-historically-low.aspx

Robert J. Blendon, John M. Benson; Trust in Medicine, the Health System & Public Health. Daedalus 2022; 151 (4): 67–82. 

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Description: 

An immersive reading of Sommelier by by Suraj Bala with reflection on reflection, death, resurrection, candles and em dashes. 

Work:

Poem: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/article-abstract/2839156

Bala S. Sommelier. JAMA Oncol. 2025;11(11):1399. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2025.2896

References: 

Meditation for the Primary and Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. Rees K, Takeda A, Court R, et al. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2024;2:CD013358. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD013358.pub2.

Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-Being: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Goyal M, Singh S, Sibinga EM, et al. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2014;174(3):357-68. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018.

Inner Engineering Practices and Advanced 4-Day Isha Yoga Retreat Are Associated With Cannabimimetic Effects With Increased Endocannabinoids and Short-Term and Sustained Improvement in Mental Health: A Prospective Observational Study of Meditators. Sadhasivam S, Alankar S, Maturi R, et al. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : eCAM. 2020;2020:8438272. doi:10.1155/2020/8438272.

Systematic Review for the Medical Applications of Meditation in Randomized Controlled Trials. Kim DY, Hong SH, Jang SH, et al. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022;19(3):1244. doi:10.3390/ijerph19031244.

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Description: 

An immersive reading of Offerings From My Patients and Their Families by Hanna M. Saltzman with reflection on offerings, gifts, complaints, and boundary crossings.

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2839104 

References:

Saltzman HM. Offerings From My Patients and Their Families. JAMA. 2025;334(15):1399. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.12143

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2839104 

Hanna Saltzman: www.hannasaltzman.com 

Hyde, Lewis. The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property. 25th anniversary ed., Vintage Books, 2007.

Campo R. Making Lists in Medicine and Poetry. JAMA. 2025;334(15):1399. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.12103

https://www.etymonline.com/word/offering 

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Description: 

An immersive reading of If We Must Die by Claude McKay with reflection on military metaphors in healthcare and being a fighter.

Website:

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Work:

If We Must Die
by Claude McKay

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

References:

Metaphor, Oxford English Dictionary, https://www.oed.com/dictionary/metaphor_n?tl=true 

Metaphor, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/metaphor 

Aristotle. The Poetics, trans Ingram Bywater. Chapter 21, 1457b1-30 

Kim S, Mills H, Brender T, McGowan S, Widera E, Chapman AC, Harrison KL, Lee S, Smith AK, Bamman D, Gologorskaya O, Cobert J. "My Mom Is a Fighter": A Qualitative Analysis of the Use of Combat Metaphors in ICU Clinician Notes. Chest. 2024 Nov;166(5):1162-1172. 

Tate T. Your Father's a Fighter; Your Daughter's a Vegetable: A Critical Analysis of the Use of Metaphor in Clinical Practice. Hastings Cent Rep. 2020 Sep;50(5):20-29.

Thibodeau PH, Hendricks RK, Boroditsky L. How Linguistic Metaphor Scaffolds Reasoning. Trends Cogn Sci. 2017 Nov;21(11):852-863.

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Description: 

An immersive reading of With Child by Genevieve Taggard with reflection on pregnancy, maternal mortality, pace, and isolation. 

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

With Child
by Genevieve Taggard 

Now I am slow and placid, fond of sun,
Like a sleek beast, or a worn one:
No slim and languid girl—not glad
With the windy trip I once had,
But velvet-footed, musing of my own,
Torpid, mellow, stupid as a stone.

You cleft me with your beauty’s pulse, and now
Your pulse has taken body. Care not how
The old grace goes, how heavy I am grown,
Big with this loneliness, how you alone
Ponder our love. Touch my feet and feel
How earth tingles, teeming at my heel!
Earth’s urge, not mine,—my little death, not hers;
And the pure beauty yearns and stirs.

It does not heed our ecstacies, it turns
With secrets of its own, its own concerns,
Toward a windy world of its own, toward stark
And solitary places. In the dark,
Defiant even now, it tugs and moans
To be untangled from these mother’s bones.

References:

Goldenberg RL, McClure EM. Maternal mortality. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2011 Oct;205(4):293-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2011.07.045. Epub 2011 Aug 4. PMID: 22083050; PMCID: PMC3893928.

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mortality 

Hoyert DL. Maternal mortality rates in the United States, 2023. NCHS Health E-Stats. 2025. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15620/cdc/174577.

Qaseem A, Wilt TJ, McLean RM, Forciea MA; Clinical Guidelines Committee of the American College of Physicians; Denberg TD, Barry MJ, Boyd C, Chow RD, Fitterman N, Harris RP, Humphrey LL, Vijan S. Noninvasive Treatments for Acute, Subacute, and Chronic Low Back Pain: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the American College of Physicians. Ann Intern Med. 2017 Apr 4;166(7):514-530. doi: 10.7326/M16-2367. Epub 2017 Feb 14. PMID: 28192789.

Moyer CA, Rounds J, Hannum JW. A meta-analysis of massage therapy research. Psychol Bull. 2004 Jan;130(1):3-18. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.130.1.3. PMID: 14717648.

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Description: 

An immersive reading of [O sweet spontaneous] by E.E. Cummings with reflection on ways of understanding, science, and the clinician patient relationship

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

[O sweet spontaneous] by E.E. Cummings

O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting

             fingers of
prurient philosophers pinched
and
poked

thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy

        beauty      how
often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
         (but
true

to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover

             thou answerest

them only with

                              spring)

References:

Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/148505/o-sweet-spontaneous-5bf31932ce110

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Description: 

An immersive reading of "Hollow-Sounding and Mysterious" by Christina Rossetti with reflection on Grave’s disease, hyperthyroidism, and hopelessness.

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work: 

"Hollow-Sounding and Mysterious"
by Christina Rossetti

There's no replying
To the Wind's sighing,
Telling, foretelling,
Dying, undying,
Dwindling and swelling,
Complaining, droning,
Whistling and moaning,
Ever beginning,
Ending, repeating,
Hinting and dinning,
Lagging and fleeting—
We've no replying
Living or dying
To the Wind's sighing.

What are you telling,
Variable Wind-tone?
What would be teaching,
O sinking, swelling,
Desolate Wind-moan?
Ever for ever
Teaching and preaching,
Never, ah never
Making us wiser—
The earliest riser
Catches no meaning,
The last who hearkens
Garners no gleaning
Of wisdom's treasure,
While the world darkens :—
Living or dying,
In pain, in pleasure,
We've no replying
To wordless flying
Wind's sighing.

References:

A Pageant and Other Poems (1881) https://books.google.com/books?id=9Sk-AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false  

Arseneau M, Terrell E. “Our Self-Undoing”: Christina Rossetti’s Literary and Somatic Expressions of Graves’ Disease. Humanities. 2019; 8(1):57. https://doi.org/10.3390/h8010057

https://www.thyroid.org/about-american-thyroid-association/history/clark-t-sawin-history-resource-center/thyroid-history-timeline/ 

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Description: 

An immersive viewing of The Scream by Edvard Munch with reflection on fear, jaundice, aliens and anxiety. 

 Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

 By Edvard Munch - National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69541493  

References:

Friedlaender GE, Friedlaender LK. Edvard Munch and The Scream: A Cry for Help. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2018 Feb;476(2):200-202. 

Rosenblum, Robert (1978). "Introduction". Edvard Munch: Symbols & Images (PDF). Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. p. 8. 

Finger S, Sirgiovanni E. The electrified artist: Edvard Munch's demons, treatments, and sketch of an electrotherapy session (1908-1909). J Hist Neurosci. 2024 Jul-Sep;33(3):241-274.

https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/please-explain/october-2023/please-explain-why-do-we-scream 

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Description: 

An immersive reading of Disappear by Andrea Reilly with reflection on clinical spaces, inadequacy, and anorexia.

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

Disappear by Andrea Reilly: https://www.alphaomegaalpha.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/C3_AUT23.pdf 

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Description: 

An immersive reading of The Roses by Seth Peterson with reflection on boundaries, aging and decline. 

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

Peterson S. The Roses. JAMA. 2025;333(16):1461. 

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2832004 

Seth Peterson: 

Bluesky: @drsethPT

X: @sethpeterson.bsky.social 

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Description: 

An immersive reading of excerpts from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas translated by Lowell Bair with reflection on alternative and complementary care, rosemary and plot devices

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

excerpts from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas translated by Lowell Bair

“My son, all I have to give you is fifteen ecus, my horse, and the advice you’ve just heard. Your mother will give you the recipe for an ointment that a Gypsy woman taught her how to make: it miraculously heals any wound that doesn’t reach the heart. Make the most of all these gifts, and have a long, happy life.”  

“At five o’clock the next morning d’Artagnan got up, went to the kitchen, and, among  several other ingredients that history has not revealed to us, asked for some wine, olive oil, and rosemary. Then he made an ointment, which he put on his many wounds. He changed the compresses himself and would not allow the doctor to be called in. Thanks to the efficacy of the Gypsy ointment and also, perhaps, to the absence of the doctor, by that evening he was back on his feet, and by the next day he had almost completely recovered.”

“[It was] an isolated, sinister-looking little house in the distance. […] the man whom Athos had found with such difficulty lead him into his laboratory, where he had been wiring together the clattering bones of a skeleton. The body was assembled and the head lay on the table. Everything else in the room showed that he was devoted to the study of the natural sciences: there were labeled jars with snakes in them; dried lizards in black wooden frames gleamed like cut emeralds; bundles of fragrant herbs, no doubt endowed with powers unknown to ordinary men, hung from the ceiling.” 

References:

de Macedo LM, Santos ÉMD, Militão L, Tundisi LL, Ataide JA, Souto EB, Mazzola PG. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L., syn Salvia rosmarinus Spenn.) and Its Topical Applications: A Review. Plants (Basel). 2020 May 21;9(5):651.

Cervantes Saavedra, M. d., & Grossman, E. (2005). Don Quixote. 1st Ecco pbk. ed. Ecco.

Dumas, Alexandre, and Lowell Bair. The Three Musketeers. New York, Bantam Dell, 2004.

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Description: 

An immersive reading of Forgotten on Sunday by Valerie Perrin translated by Hildegarde Serle with reflection on nursing homes, caregivers, loneliness and dementia. 

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

“How's it going today, Monsieur Girardot?”
"My wife has died."
"That was a long time ago, now."
"You know, when you've lost the person you loved most in the world, you lose her every day."

"How's it going today, Monsieur Duclos?"
"Shut it, stupid bitch."
"Well, I say, you're going strong this morning."
"How the hell d'you think it's going?"
"Like a late summer."
"Stupid bitch."
"I can be. Come on, time to get up."
"What the hell are you doing?"
"You need to have a wash, Monsieur Duclos."
"Go fuck yourself."
"Well, I wouldn't say no."
"Asshole."
"OK, I'll see if that's possible."

[…]

"How's it going today, Monsieur Mouron?"
"The pain in my legs ….. Didn't sleep a wink all night."
"I'll ask the doctor to come by this morning, OK?"
"If you like."
"Shall I switch the TV on?"
"No. It's just women's stuff in the morning."

"How's it going today, Madame Minger?"
"Someone's stolen my glasses."
"Really? Have you looked everywhere?"
"Everywhere. I'm sure it's old Houdenot who's at it again."
"Madame Houdenot? Why would she have stolen your glasses?"
"To annoy me, of course."

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Description: 
An immersive reading of A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne with reflection on medical errors and confession. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne

Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,
         Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
         And do run still, though still I do deplore?
                When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
                        For I have more.

Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won
         Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun
         A year or two, but wallow'd in, a score?
                When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
                        For I have more.

I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
         My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son
         Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;
                And, having done that, thou hast done;
                        I fear no more.

References:

Wu AW. Medical error: the second victim. The doctor who makes the mistake needs help too. BMJ. 2000 Mar 18;320(7237):726-7. doi: 10.1136/bmj.320.7237.726. 

Finkelstein A, Brezis M, Taub A, Arad D. Disclosure following a medical error: lessons learned from a national initiative of workshops with patients, healthcare teams, and executives. Isr J Health Policy Res. 2024 Mar 11;13(1):13.

Rodziewicz TL, Houseman B, Vaqar S, et al. Medical Error Reduction and Prevention. [Updated 2024 Feb 12]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499956/

Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Kohn LT, Corrigan JM, Donaldson MS, editors. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2000. PMID: 25077248.

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Description: 

An immersive reading of Thoughts by Myra Viola Wilds with reflection on psychotherapy, meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy and vision loss. 

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work: 

Thoughts by Myra Viola Wilds

   In your travels day by day

Are they bright and lofty visions, 

   Or neglected, gone astray?

Matters not how great in fancy, 

    Or what deeds of skill you’ve wrought; 

Man, though high may be his station, 

    Is no better than his thoughts. 

Catch your thoughts and hold them tightly, 

   Let each one an honor be; 

Purge them, scourge them, burnish brightly, 

   Then in love set each one free.

References:

Chand SP, Kuckel DP, Huecker MR. Cognitive Behavior Therapy. [Updated 2023 May 23]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470241/

(2025, March 5). Overview - Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). nhs.uk. https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/cognitive-behavioural-therapy-cbt/overview/ 

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Description: 
A review of the highlights from the Fall 2024 edition of Intima

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

Changing the Bag by Paul Shovlin: https://www.theintima.org/changing-the-bag-paul-shovlin 

Dear Rescue Worker by Joan Roger: https://www.theintima.org/dear-rescue-worker-joan-roger 

Inscribed on a Pill Box by Maya Klauber: https://www.theintima.org/inscribed-on-a-pill-box-maya-klauber 

Omens by Ryan Boyland: https://www.theintima.org/omens-ryan-boyland 

Harmonic Helix by Anna Hostal: https://www.theintima.org/harmonic-helix-by-anna-hostal 

Migraine Nymph with Aura by Elizabeth Baxmeyer: A Being from the Land of Triptan https://www.theintima.org/migraine-nymph-with-aura-elizabeth-baxmeyer 

White Coat Ceremony by Angela Tang Tan: https://www.theintima.org/white-coat-ceremony-angela-tang-tan 

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Description: 
An immersive reading of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy with reflection on incontinence, caregivers, and existential distress.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

Special arrangements were also made for his stools, and this was a torment to him each time. A torment in its uncleanness, indecency, and smell, in the awareness that another person had to take part in it. 

But in this most unpleasant matter there also appeared a consolation for Ivan Ilyich. The butler's helper, Gerasim, always came to clear away after him. 

Gerasim was a clean, fresh young muzhik, grown sleek on town grub. Always cheerful, bright. At first the sight of this man, always clean, dressed Russian style, performing this repulsive chore, embarrassed Ivan Ilyich. 

Once, having gotten up from the commode and being unable to pull up his trousers, he collapsed into the soft armchair, looking with horror at his naked, strengthless thighs with their sharply outlined muscles. 

Gerasim, in heavy boots, spreading around him the pleasant smell of boot tar and the freshness of winter air, came in with a light, strong step, in a clean canvas apron and a clean cotton shirt, the sleeves rolled up on his bared, strong, young arms, and without looking at Ivan Ilyich¾obviously restraining the joy of life shining on his face, so as not to offend the sick man¾went to the commode. 

"Gerasim," Ivan Ilyich said weakly. Gerasim gave a start, evidently afraid he was remiss in something, and with a quick movement he turned to the sick man his fresh, kind, simple young face, only just beginning to sprout a beard. 

"What, sir?" 

"I suppose this must be unpleasant for you. Excuse me. I can't help it. " 

"Mercy, sir." And Gerasim flashed his eyes and bared his young, white teeth. "Why shouldn't I do it? It's a matter of you being sick." And with his deft, strong hands he did his usual business and went out, stepping lightly. And five minutes later, stepping just as lightly, he came back.

References:

The Death of Ivan Ilyich: https://web.stanford.edu/~jsabol/existentialism/materials/tolstoy_death_ilyich.pdf 

Tolstoy, Leo, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories (Vintage, 2010)

Charlton B, Verghese A. Caring for Ivan Ilyich. J Gen Intern Med. 2010 Jan;25(1):93-5.

Lucas V. The death of Ivan Ilyich and the concept of 'total pain'. Clin Med (Lond). 2012 Dec;12(6):601-2.

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E45 Long Neglect Has Worn Away by Emily Bronte 

Description: 

An immersive reading of Long Neglect Has Worn Away by Emily Bronte with reflection on transience and permeance, tuberculosis and facial maladies. 

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

[Long Neglect Has Worn Away] by Emily Bronte

Long neglect has worn away
Half the sweet enchanting smile;
Time has turned the bloom to gray;
Mold and damp the face defile.

But that lock of silky hair,
Still beneath the picture twined,
Tells what once those features were,
Paints their image on the mind.

Fair the hand that traced that line,
“Dearest, ever deem me true”;
Swiftly flew the fingers fine
When the pen that motto drew.

References:

Emily Bronte: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/emily-bronte 

Bansal R, Jain A, Mittal S. Orofacial tuberculosis: Clinical manifestations, diagnosis and management. J Family Med Prim Care. 2015 Jul-Sep;4(3):335-41.

Quaranta N, Petrone P, Michailidou A, Miragliotta L, Santantonio M, Del Prete R, Mosca A, Miragliotta G. Tuberculous otitis media with facial paralysis: a clinical and microbiological diagnosis-a case report. Case Rep Infect Dis. 2011;2011:932608.

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Tanka and Haiku by Sadakichi Hartmann with reflection on tanka, haiku, and aging. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

Tanka and Haiku by Sadakichi Hartmann

Tanka IX
Were we able to tell 
When old age would come our way,
We would muffle the bell,
Lock the door and go away
Let him call some other day

Haikai IV
Oh, red maple leaves,
There seem more of you these eves 
Than ever grew on trees

References:

Tanka and Haikai: 14 Japanese Rhythms (Author’s Edition, 1916): https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/007ef74e882c8829c0ec2e7f7eac2f6b.pdf  

Sadakichi Hartman: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sadakichi-hartmann 

Sadakichi Hartman: https://aaww.org/sadakichi-hartmann-missing-link/ 

Tanka: https://poets.org/glossary/tanka 

Haiku: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/haiku-or-hokku 

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Description: 
An immersive reading of A Prayer to the Asvins by Ghosha translated by H. D. Griswold with reflection on physician gods, Gosha, leprosy, praise and gift exchange. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:
A Prayer to the Asvins
Ghosha translated by H. D. Griswold

Your car, the swiftly-rolling:, circumambient,
To be saluted day and night by worshippers,
Asvins, that car of yours we here invoke,
Just as the name of father, easy to entreat.

Arouse the lovely hymns and make our thoughts to swell,
Stir up abundant riches, — that is our desire ;
Make glorious our heritage, ye Asvin pair ;
Yea, make us for our princes like the Soma dear.

Ye are good luck for her who groweth old at home ;
The slow — yea even the slowest one — ye help him on ;
Ye two are called physicians, healers of the blind,
Yea of the feeble and the one with broken limbs.

I call to you, O Asvins, listen to my cry,
And give your help to me as parents to a son ;
Friendless am I, bereft of relative, and poor,
Save me, O save me from the curse which rests on me.

Upon your chariot ye did bring to Vimada,
To be his consort, Purumitra's lovely maid ;
Came to the weakling’s wife in answer to her call.
And to Puramdhi gave the boon of motherhood.

Unto the singer Kali, who had reached old age,
Ye gave anew the boon of fresh and youthful strength ;
’Twas you that lifted Vandana from out the pit ;
Ye gave to Vispala the power at once to walk.

[...]

Come on that chariot which is speedier than thought.
That chariot, Asvins, which the Ribhus built for you;
On yoking which the daughter of the sky is born.
And from Vivasvat the auspicious day and night.

This praise-song have we made for you, O Asvins,
Have fashioned it as Bhrigus build a wagon ;
Have decked it as the bride is for the bridegroom,
Presenting it to you as our own offspring.

References:

Poem: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.110065/page/n49/mode/2up 

Wendy Doniger. Hindu Myths Penguin Classics 1975

https://chs.harvard.edu/douglas-frame-the-myth-of-return-in-early-greek-epic-6-evidence-for-the-meaning-of-the-indo-european-root-nes/ 

Cartwright, M. (2016, June 30). Ashvins. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Ashvins/  

Rig Veda: http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-rvs:rv10-h30 

Hyde, L. (2007). The gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World. Vintage.

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Hope by Joseph Zarconi with reflection on hope, goal concordant care, chemotherapy, and patients with young children. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

References:

Zarconi J. Hope. Ann Intern Med. 2024 Apr;177(4):541

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M23-2289

Feldman DB, Corn BW. Hope and cancer. Curr Opin Psychol. 2023 Feb;49:101506.

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Description: 

An immersive reading of On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf with reflection on language, health humanities and bipolar disorder.

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com

Work:

Excerpts from On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf

Finally, to hinder the description of illness in literature, there is the poverty of the language. English, which can express the thoughts of Hamlet and the tragedy of Lear, has no words for the shiver and the headache. It has all grown one way. The merest schoolgirl, when she falls in love, has Shakespeare or Keats to speak her mind for her; but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry. There is nothing ready made for him. He is forced to coin words himself, and, taking his pain in one hand, and a lump of pure sound in the other (as perhaps the people of Babel did in the beginning), so to crush them together that a brand-new word in the end drops out. Probably it will be something laughable. […] Yet it is not only a new language that we need, more primitive, more sensual, more obscene, but a new hierarchy of the passions; love must be deposed in favour of a temperature of 104; jealousy give place to the pangs of sciatica; sleeplessness play the part of villain, and the hero become a white liquid with a sweet taste—that mighty Prince with the moths' eyes and the feathered feet, one of whose names is Chloral.

References:

On Being Ill: https://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500221h.html#ch3 

Bantel C, Sörös P. On pain - Virginia Woolf and the language of poets and patients. Br J Pain. 2021 Nov;15(4):497-500.

Munday I, Kneebone I, Newton-John T. The language of chronic pain. Disabil Rehabil. 2021 Feb;43(3):354-361. 

Pett S. Rash Reading: Rethinking Virginia Woolf's On Being Ill. Lit Med. 2019;37(1):26-66. 

Dalsimer K. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). Am J Psychiatry. 2004 May;161(5):809. 

Koutsantoni K. Manic depression in literature: the case of Virginia Woolf. Med Humanit. 2012 Jun;38(1):7-14.

Bazin, N. T. (1994). Postmortem diagnoses of Virginia Woolf's 'madness': The precarious quest for truth. In B. M. Rieger (Ed.), Dionysus in literature: Essays on literary madness (pp. 133-147). Bowling Green State University Popular Press. 

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Sonnet – To Science by Edgar Allen Poe with reflection on sonnets, science, and Greek and Roman mythology. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Sonnet—To Science
By Edgar Allen Poe

Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
   Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet’s heart,
   Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,
   Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering
To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,
   Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car,
   And driven the Hamadryad from the wood
To seek a shelter in some happier star?
   Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,
The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

References:

Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48625/sonnet-to-science 

Hirsch, E. (1999). How to read a poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry. HarperCollins. 

Sonnet: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70051/learning-the-sonnet 

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Open Windows by Sara Teasdale with reflection on mobility, pain, trees and wonder.  

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:
Open Windows
by Sara Teasdale

Out of the window a sea of green trees
Lift their soft boughs like the arms of a dancer,
They beckon and call me, "Come out in the sun!"
But I cannot answer.
I am alone with Weakness and Pain,
Sick abed and June is going,
I cannot keep her, she hurries by
With the silver-green of her garments blowing.
Men and women pass in the street
Glad of the shining sapphire weather,
But we know more of it than they,
Pain and I together.
They are the runners in the sun,
Breathless and blinded by the race,
But we are watchers in the shade
Who speak with Wonder face to face.

References:

Sara Teasdale: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sara-teasdale 

Ulrich RS. View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science. 1984 Apr 27;224(4647):420-1.

Mihandoust S, Joseph A, Kennedy S, MacNaughton P, Woo M. Exploring the Relationship between Window View Quantity, Quality, and Ratings of Care in the Hospital. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Oct 12;18(20):10677.

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Description: 
An immersive reading of two poems, ‘Suicide’s Note’ and ‘Sick Room,’ by  Langston Hughes with reflection on suicide, locations of illness and the personification of death.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:

Suicide’s Note
By Langston Hughes

The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss.


Sick Room
By Langston Hughes

How quiet
It is in this sick room
Where on the bed
A silent woman lies between two lovers—
Life and Death,
And all three covered with a sheet of pain.

References:

The Weary Blues: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Weary_Blues 

Langston Hughes: https://poets.org/poet/langston-hughes 

Harkup, K. (2020). Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, stabbings and Broken hearts.

Novotney, A. (2020, March 24). The risks of social isolation. Monitor on Psychology, 50(5). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/ce-corner-isolation 

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Description: 
An immersive reading of excerpts from Arabian Nights attributed to Scheherazade with translation by Edward William Lane with reflection on leprosy, the ideal clinician and cutaneous treatments.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:

The Story of King Yoonan and the Sage Dooban from The Thousand and One Nights attributed to Scheherazade with translation by Edward William Lane. 

in former times, in the country of the Persians, a monarch who was called King Yoonán, possessing great treasures and numerous forces, valiant, and having troops of every description; but he was afflicted with leprosy, which the physicians and sages had failed to remove; neither their potions, nor powders, nor ointments were of any benefit to him; and none of the physicians was able to cure him. At length there arrived at the city of this king a great sage, stricken in years, who was called the sage Doobán: he was acquainted with ancient Greek, Persian, modern Greek, Arabic, and Syriac books, and with medicine and astrology, both with respect to their scientific principles and the rules of their practical applications for good and evil; as well as the properties of plants, dried and fresh, the injurious and the useful: he was versed in the wisdom of the philosophers, and embraced a knowledge of all the medical and other sciences. […]

He […] hired a house, in which he deposited his books, and medicines, and drugs. Having done this, he selected certain of his medicines and drugs, and made a goff-stick, with a hollow handle, into which he introduced them; after which he made a ball for it, skillfully adapted; and on the following day, after he had finished these, he went again to the King, and kissed the ground before him, and directed him to repair to the horse-course, and to play with the ball and goff-stick. The King, attended by his Emeers and Chamberlains and Wezeers, went thither, and, as soon as he arrived there, the sage Doobán presented himself before him, and handed to him the goff-stick, saying, Take this goff-stick, and grasp it thus, and ride along the horse-course, and strike the ball with it with all thy force, until the palm of thy hand and thy whole body become moist with perspiration, when the medicine will penetrate into thy hand, and pervade thy whole body; and when thou hast done this, and the medicine remains in thee, return to thy palace, and enter the bath, and wash thyself, and sleep: then shalt thou find thyself cured: and peace be on thee.

References:

1001 Nights: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34206/34206-h/34206-h.htm  

Leprosy: https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/index.html 

Grzybowski A, Nita M. Leprosy in the Bible. Clin Dermatol. 2016 Jan-Feb;34(1):3-7. doi: 10.1016/j.clindermatol.2015.10.003. Epub 2015 Nov 17.

Eather N, Wade L, Pankowiak A, Eime R. The impact of sports participation on mental health and social outcomes in adults: a systematic review and the 'Mental Health through Sport' conceptual model.

Oja P, Titze S, Kokko S, Kujala UM, Heinonen A, Kelly P, Koski P, Foster C. Health benefits of different sport disciplines for adults: systematic review of observational and intervention studies with meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2015 Apr;49(7):434-40.

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Spring and All Poem XVI by William Carlos Williams with reflection on signs of illness, jaundice, liver failure, onomatopoeia and poetic apostrophe.

 Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Spring and All, Poem XVI
By William Carlos Williams

O tongue
licking
the sore on
her netherlip

O toppled belly

O passionate cotton
stuck with
matted hair

elysian slobber
from her mouth
upon
the folded handkerchief

I can’t die

--moaned the old
jaundiced woman
rolling her
saffron eyeballs

I can’t die
I can’t die

References:

Spring and All:
https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/0881/Spring%2520and%2520All-WCW.pdf 
or
https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9781513283029 

William Carlos Williams: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-carlos-williams  

Poetic Apostrophe: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/apostrophe-literary-device-meaning 

Baughn RE, Musher DM. Secondary syphilitic lesions. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2005 Jan;18(1):205-16.

Health Quality Ontario. In-home care for optimizing chronic disease management in the community: an evidence-based analysis. Ont Health Technol Assess Ser. 2013 Sep 1;13(5):1-65. 

NB Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore

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Description: 
An immersive reading of A Field of Trilliums by Lori-Anne Noyahr first published in Ars Medica in 2023 with reflection on brain death, anesthesia, liminality and sounds. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:
Noyahr, L.-A. (2023). A Field of Trilliums. Ars Medica, 17(2), 3 pp. Retrieved from https://ars-medica.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2131 

References:

De Georgia MA. History of brain death as death: 1968 to the present. J Crit Care. 2014 Aug;29(4):673-8.

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Sippokni Sia by Winnie Lewis Gravitt with reflection on the Choctaw Indian Tribe, code switching, aging and the grandmother effect.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Sippokni Sia
Winnie Lewis Gravitt

I am old, Sippokni sia.
Before my eyes run many years,
Like panting runners in a race.
Like a weary runner, the years lag;
Eyes grow dim, blind with wood smoke;
A handkerchief binds my head,
For I am old. Sippokni sia.

Hands, once quick to weave and spin;
Strong to fan the tanchi;
Fingers patient to shape dirt bowls;
Loving to sew hunting shirt;
Now, like oak twigs twisted.
I sit and rock my grandson.
I am old. Sippokni sia.

Feet swift as wind o’er young cane shoots;
Like stirring leaves in ta falla dance;
Slim like rabbits in leather shoes;
Now moves like winter snows,
Like melting snows on the Cavanaugh.
In the door I sit, my feet in spring water.
I am old. Sippokni sia.

Black like crow’s feather, my hair.
Long and straight like hanging rope;
My people proud and young.
Now like hickory ashes in my hair,
Like ashes of old camp fire in rain.
Much civilization bow my people;
Sorrow, grief and trouble sit like blackbirds on fence.
I am old. Sippokni sia hoke.

References:

Winnie Lewis Gravitt: https://poets.org/poet/winnie-lewis-gravitt  

https://dictionary.choctawnation.com/word/

Coall DA, Hertwig R. Grandparental investment: past, present, and future. Behav Brain Sci. 2010 Feb;33(1):1-19; discussion 19-40.

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Description: 
An immersive reading of King Lear by William Shakespeare with reflection on dementia, storms and caregivers.  

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:

King Lear by William Shakespeare  Act 3 Scene 1 lines 1-20

KENT  Who’s there, besides foul weather?

GENTLEMAN One minded like the weather, most unquietly.

KENT  I know you. Where’s the King?

GENTLEMAN 

Contending with the fretful elements;

Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea

Or swell the curlèd waters ’bove the main,

That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,

Which the impetuous blasts with eyeless rage

Catch in their fury and make nothing of;

Strives in his little world of man to outscorn

The to-and-fro conflicting wind and rain.

This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,

The lion and the belly-pinchèd wolf

Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs

And bids what will take all.

KENT  But who is with him?

GENTLEMAN 

None but the Fool, who labors to outjest

His heart-struck injuries.


References:

King Lear (electronic): https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/king-lear/read/ 

King Lear (print): https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9781501118111 

NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore

 Ottilingam S. The psychiatry of King Lear. Indian J Psychiatry. 2007 Jan;49(1):52-5.

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An immersive reading of excerpts from Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag with reflection on cancer, tuberculosis, metaphors and myths. 

References:

Illness as Metaphor:  https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780312420130 

NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore 

Curran J. Illness as Metaphor; AIDS and its Metaphors. BMJ. 2007 Sep 8;335(7618):517.

Clow B. Who's afraid of Susan Sontag? Or, the myths and metaphors of cancer reconsidered. Soc Hist Med. 2001 Aug;14(2):293-312.

Oransky I. Susan Sontag. Lancet. 2005 Feb 5-11;365(9458):468. 

Diniz G, Korkes L, Tristão LS, Pelegrini R, Bellodi PL, Bernardo WM. The effects of gratitude interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Einstein (Sao Paulo). 2023 Aug 11;21:eRW0371.

Boggiss AL, Consedine NS, Brenton-Peters JM, Hofman PL, Serlachius AS. A systematic review of gratitude interventions: Effects on physical health and health behaviors. J Psychosom Res. 2020 Aug;135:110165. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110165.

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Description: 
An immersive viewing of Calavera Catrina by Jose Guadalupe Posada with reflection on skeletons, Halloween and the Day of the Dead. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
 https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/47687

References:

Miller ME Taube KA. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya : An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. New York: Thames and Hudson; 1993. 

https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780500279281 

Posada’s Mexico edited by Ron Tyler

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173023529665&view=1up&seq=11 

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Sassafras Tea by Effie Lee Newsome with reflection on tea rituals, herbal remedies, the good and hindsight. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Sassafras Tea
By Effie Lee Newsome

The sass’fras tea is red and clear
 In my white china cup,
 So pretty I keep peeping in
 Before I drink it up.

I stir it with a silver spoon,
 And sometimes I just hold
 A little tea inside the spoon,
 Like it was lined with gold.

It makes me hungry just to smell
 The nice hot sass’fras tea,
 And that’s the one thing I really like
 That they say’s good for me.

References:

Effie Lee Newsome: https://poets.org/poet/effie-lee-newsome  

Sassafras Tea: https://poets.org/poem/sassafras-tea 

Caroling Dusk: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1136&context=zeabook 

Noé, J. (2002). Chapter 10 Ethnomedicine of the cherokee: Historical and current applications. In Advances in Phytomedicine (Vol. 1, pp. 125-131). Elsevier B.V.

Elizabeth A. Hausner, Robert H. Poppenga.  Editor(s): Michael E. Peterson, Patricia A. Talcott, (2013) Chapter 26 Hazards Associated with the Use of Herbal and Other Natural Products. In Small Animal Toxicology (Third Edition, pp 335-356) W.B. Saunders,

Sloan Kettering: https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/sassafras

Hilton L, Hempel S, Ewing BA, Apaydin E, Xenakis L, Newberry S, Colaiaco B, Maher AR, Shanman RM, Sorbero ME, Maglione MA. Mindfulness Meditation for Chronic Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Ann Behav Med. 2017 Apr;51(2):199-213. 

Rusch HL, Rosario M, Levison LM, Olivera A, Livingston WS, Wu T, Gill JM. The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2019 Jun;1445(1):5-16.

Black DS, Slavich GM. Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2016 Jun;1373(1):13-24.

Charlton A. Medicinal uses of tobacco in history. J R Soc Med. 2004 Jun;97(6):292-6.

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Description:
An immersive reading of Gitanjali 8 by Rabindranath Tagore with reflection on healthful dust, allergies, shared decision making, white coats and scrubs. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Gitanjali 8 by Rabindranath Tagore

The child who is decked with prince’s robes and who has jewelled chains round his neck loses all pleasure in his play; his dress hampers him at every step.

In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust he keeps himself from the world, and is afraid even to move.

Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life.

References: 

Gitanjali https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7164/pg7164-images.html  

Rabindranath Tagore https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rabindranath-tagore  

Blumenthal-Barby J, Opel DJ, Dickert NW, Kramer DB, Tucker Edmonds B, Ladin K, Peek ME, Peppercorn J, Tilburt J. Potential Unintended Consequences Of Recent Shared Decision Making Policy Initiatives. Health Aff (Millwood). 2019 Nov;38(11):1876-1881.

Lambrecht, B., Hammad, H. The immunology of the allergy epidemic and the hygiene hypothesis. Nat Immunol 18, 1076–1083 (2017).

Pfefferle PI, Keber CU, Cohen RM, Garn H. The Hygiene Hypothesis - Learning From but Not Living in the Past. Front Immunol. 2021 Mar 16;12:635935.

Haahtela T. A biodiversity hypothesis. Allergy. 2019 Aug;74(8):1445-1456.

O'Donnell VR, Chinelatto LA, Rodrigues C, Hojaij FC. A brief history of medical uniforms: from ancient history to the COVID-19 time. Rev Col Bras Cir. 2020 Jun 8;47:e20202597.

Sood, S. (2023, July 10). Fashion-based medicine: A history of western doctors’ dress - hektoen internationalShefali Sood. Hektoen International - An online medical humanities journal. https://hekint.org/2023/07/10/fashion-based-medicine-a-history-of-western-doctors-dress/

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Description: 

An immersive reading of an excerpt from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott with reflection on symptoms and treatments for the common cold and the clinician patient relationship. 

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:

 excerpt from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott  

Two nights ago I showed up to teach my class with a raw chest and a raging sore throat, that kind that feels like cancer of the trachea. I happen to have two doctors in this class, and one of them tried to assure me that it probably wasn't tracheal cancer, that in fact the viral cloud of mid-autumn had descended and many people were having similar symptoms. The other doctor recommended drinking really, really hot water. "Hot water?" I said. "Hot water? I should be home hooked up to an epidural, drinking codeine cough syrup, and you're prescribing hot water?" Then I threatened to lower his grade. (Of course, this is not a graded workshop, so my students tend to roll their eyes when I threaten them.) At the break, that doctor brought me a cup of boiling water, as though for tea but without the tea bag, and I drank it. My throat and chest stopped aching about twenty seconds later. 

I hate that. 

References:

Bird by Bird: https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780385480017 

https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/otc-pharmaceuticals/cold-cough-remedies/united-states 

Earn DJ, Andrews PW, Bolker BM. Population-level effects of suppressing fever. Proc Biol Sci. 2014 Jan 22;281(1778):20132570.

Jaume F, Valls-Mateus M, Mullol J. Common Cold and Acute Rhinosinusitis: Up-to-Date Management in 2020. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2020 Jun 3;20(7):28.

Spector SL. The common cold: current therapy and natural history. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1995 May;95(5 Pt 2):1133-8.

NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore 

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Description:
An immersive reading of an untitled poem by King Nezahualcoyotl translated by Daniel Brinton with reflection on Nahuatl poetry, memento mori, and flowers.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:

 Excerpts from an untitled poem by King Nezahualcoyotl translated by Daniel Brinton

1. The fleeting pomps of the world are like the green willow trees, which, aspiring to permanence, are consumed by a fire, fall before the axe, are upturned by the wind, or are scarred and saddened by age.

2. The grandeurs of life are like the flowers in color and in fate. […]

3. The delicious realms of flowers count their dynasties by short periods; those which in the morning revel proudly in beauty and strength, by evening weep for the sad destruction of their thrones, and for the mishaps which drive them to loss, to poverty, to death and to the grave. All things of earth have an end.  […]

4. […] nothing is so perfect that it does not fall and disappear. […]

5. The caverns of earth are filled with pestilential dust which once was the bones, the flesh, the bodies of great ones who sate upon thrones […]

6. […] Were I to introduce you into the obscure bowels of this temple, and were to ask you which of these bones were those of the powerful Achalchiuhtlanextin, first chief of the ancient Toltecs; […] if I continued thus questioning about all our august ancestors, what would you reply? The same that I reply—I know not, I know not; for first and last are confounded in the common clay. What was their fate shall be ours, and of all who follow us.

7. Unconquered princes, warlike chieftains, let us seek, let us sigh for the heaven, for there all is eternal, and nothing is corruptible. The darkness of the sepulchre is but the strengthening couch for the glorious sun, and the obscurity of the night but serves to reveal the brilliancy of the stars. 

References:

Poem: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12219/12219-h/12219-h.htm#S_10 

Miller ME Taube KA. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya : An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. New York: Thames and Hudson; 1993.  https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780500279281 

Noonan E, Little M, Kerridge I. Return of the memento mori: imaging death in public health. J R Soc Med. 2013 Dec;106(12):475-7. doi: 10.1177/0141076813495828. Epub 2013 Sep 11. PMID: 24025227; PMCID: PMC3842855.

Mexica vs Aztec https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/home/you-are-no-longer-called-aztecs-you-are-mexica 

NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore 

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Alcestis by Rebekka DePew with reflection on resuscitation, life after death, and work-home balance.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Alcestis 
by Rebekka DePew

Those who die and then return are
often silent
which has never once been attributed to
having seen god

sometimes when I come back
I do not speak

sometimes when I come back
I smell on my children's breath
the tinge of flesh left too long unfed
sinew without nerve
we are lightning set to smolder

I know that now

before I left I was told
that the sun and the moon were too heavy for
the same sky

I was not told that death would linger
I was not told that the river Styx was petty
and bureaucratic I was not told

that I would always see the
asphodel in its upperworld daffodil shadows
and never again fit like salt into water in

this living world with its
olive trees and vineyards
and chamomile tea in the evening

I belong to another world
one that does not know what to make
of such things

References

Alcestis: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-1169 

DePew R. Alcestis. Ann Intern Med. 2023;176(3):422. doi:10.7326/M22-1169

 Enjabment: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/enjambment 

 More poems by Rebekka DePew

https://ars-medica.ca/index.php/journal/search/index?query=Rebekka+DePew&dateFromYear=&dateFromMonth=&dateFromDay=&dateToYear=&dateToMonth=&dateToDay=&authors= 

https://www.acpjournals.org/action/doSearch?AllField=Rebekka+DePew 

https://jamanetwork.com/searchresults?q=Rebekka%20DePew&allSites=1&SearchSourceType=1&exPrm_qqq={DEFAULT_BOOST_FUNCTION}%22Rebekka%20DePew%22&exPrm_hl.q=Rebekka%20DePew 

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Description:
An immersive reading of excerpts from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson with reflection on alcohol withdrawal, bargaining and grey.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:

excerpts from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

 But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble voice but heartily. “Doctors is all swabs,” he said; “and that doctor there, why, what do he know about seafaring men? I been in places hot as pitch, and mates dropping round with Yellow Jack, and the blessed land a- heaving like the sea with earthquakes — what to the doctor know of lands like that?— and I lived on rum, I tell you. It’s been meat and drink, and man and wife, to me; and if I’m not to have my rum now I’m a poor old hulk on a lee shore, my blood’ll be on you, Jim, and that doctor swab”; and he ran on again for a while with curses. “Look, Jim, how my fingers fidges,” he continued in the pleading tone. “I can’t keep ’em still, not I. I haven’t had a drop this blessed day. That doctor’s a fool, I tell you. If I don’t have a drain o’ rum, Jim, I’ll have the horrors; I seen some on ’em already. I seen old Flint in the corner there, behind you; as plain as print, I seen him; and if I get the horrors, I’m a man that has lived rough, and I’ll raise Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass wouldn’t hurt me. I’ll give you a golden guinea for a noggin, Jim.”

References:

Treasure Island paperback: https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780008514587 

Treasure Island digital: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/120/120-h/120-h.htm 

Newman RK, Stobart Gallagher MA, Gomez AE. Alcohol Withdrawal. [Updated 2022 Aug 29]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-.

Rosenbaum M, McCarty T. Alcohol prescription by surgeons in the prevention and treatment of delirium tremens: historic and current practice. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2002;24(4):257-259.

Schuckit MA. Recognition and management of withdrawal delirium (delirium tremens). N Engl J Med. 2014;371(22):2109-2113.

NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore 

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Description: 

An immersive reading of The Drunkard’s Child by Francis Ellen Watkins Harper with reflection on alcohol use disorder, repression, and change. 

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work: 

The Drunkard’s Child by Francis Ellen Watkins Harper

He stood beside his dying child,
With a dim and bloodshot eye;
They'd won him from the haunts of vice
To see his first-born die
He came with a slow and staggering tread,
A vague, unmeaning stare,
And, reeling, clasped the clammy hand,
So deathly pale and fair.

In a dark and gloomy chamber,
Life ebbing fast away,
On a coarse and wretched pallet,
The dying sufferer lay:
A smile of recognition
Lit up the glazing eye;
“I'm very glad,” it seemed to say,
“You've come to see me die.”

That smile reached to his callous heart,
Its sealed fountains stirred;
He tried to speak, but on his lips
Faltered and died each word.
And burning tears like rain
Poured down his bloated face,
Where guilt, remorse and shame
Had scathed, and left their trace.

“My father!” said the dying child,
(His voice was faint and low,)
“Oh! clasp me closely to your heart,
And kiss me ere I go
Bright angels beckon me away,
To the holy city fair—
Oh! tell me, Father, ere I go,
Say, will you meet me there?”

He clasped him to his throbbing heart,
“I will! I will!” he said;
His pleading ceased—the father held
His first-born and his dead!
The marble brow, with golden curls,
Lay lifeless on his breast;
Like sunbeams on the distant clouds
Which line the gorgeous west.

References:

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper:  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/frances-ellen-watkins-harper 

The Drunkard’s Child: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=z0vmxcwxlrEC&pg=GBS.PA2&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en 

 Driessen E, Hollon SD. Cognitive behavioral therapy for mood disorders: efficacy, moderators and mediators. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2010;33(3):537-555.

 Fairbanks J, Umbreit A, Kolla BP, et al. Evidence-Based Pharmacotherapies for Alcohol Use Disorder: Clinical Pearls. Mayo Clin Proc. 2020;95(9):1964-1977.

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Description: 
An immersive reading of excerpts from Death’s End by Cixin Liu translated by Ken Liu with reflection on wording, healthcare decision making, family and finances. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:

excerpts from Death’s End by Cixin Liu translated by Ken Liu

A fit of coughing forced him to put down the newspaper and try to get some sleep.

The next day, the TV also showed some interviews and reports about the euthanasia law, but there didn't seem to be a lot of public interest.

Tianming had trouble sleeping that night: He coughed; he struggled to breathe: he felt weak and nauseous from the chemo. The patient who had the bed next to his sat on the edge of Tianming's bed and held the oxygen tube for him. His surname was Li, and everyone called him "Lao Li," Old Li.

Lao Li looked around to be sure that the other two patients who shared the room with them were asleep, and then said, "Tianming, I'm going to leave early."

"You've been discharged?"

"No. It's that law."

Tianming sat up. "But why? Your children are so solicitous and caring-"

"That is exactly why I've decided to do this. If this drags out much longer, they'd have to sell their houses. What for? In the end, there's no cure. I have to be responsible for my children and their children."

Lao Li sighed, lightly patted Tianming's arm, and returned to his own bed.

Staring at the shadows cast against the window curtain by swaying trees, Tianming gradually fell asleep. For the first time since his illness, he had a peaceful dream. […]

It took a great deal of internal discussion before the news outlets settled on the verb "to conduct." "To execute" was clearly inappropriate; "to carry out" sounded wrong as well; "to complete" seemed to suggest that death was already certain, which was not exactly accurate, either. […]

None of Lao Li's family members were present for the procedure. He had kept his decision from them and requested that the city's Civil Affairs Bureau-not the hospital- inform his family after the procedure was complete. The new law permitted him to conduct his affairs in this manner.

References:

Death’s End (book 3): https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780765386632
The Three-Body Problem (book 1): https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780765382030
NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore 

 Cixin Liu: https://paper-republic.org/pers/liu-cixin/ 

Koch T. A Sceptics Report: Canada's Five Years Experience with Medical Termination (MAiD) [published online ahead of print, 2022 Feb 12].

Virtual Mentor. 2007;9(1):188-192.

Oregon Public Health. Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act 2014. Salem, OR: Oregon Public Health; 2015. Available from: www.oregon.gov/oha/ph/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Documents/year17.pdf. Accessed 2015 Nov 27. 

Siddiqui M, Rajkumar SV. The high cost of cancer drugs and what we can do about it. Mayo Clin Proc. 2012;87(10):935-943.

Hao Yu, Universal health insurance coverage for 1.3 billion people: What accounts for China's success?, Health Policy, Volume 119, Issue 9, 2015, Pages 1145-1152, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2015.07.008.

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu with reflection on small pox, appearances and responding to illness.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox
by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

' How am I chang'd ! alas ! how am I grown
' A frightful spectre, to myself unknown !
' Where's my Complexion ? where the radiant Bloom,
' That promis'd happiness for Years to come ?
' Then with what pleasure I this face survey'd !
' To look once more, my visits oft delay'd !
' Charm'd with the view, a fresher red would rise,
' And a new life shot sparkling from my eyes !

[…]

' Ye, cruel Chymists, what with-held your aid !
' Could no pomatums save a trembling maid ?
' How false and trifling is that art you boast ;
' No art can give me back my beauty lost.
' In tears, surrounded by my friends I lay,
' Mask'd o'er and trembled at the sight of day;
' MIRMILLO came my fortune to deplore,
' (A golden headed cane, well carv'd he bore)
' Cordials, he cried, my spirits must restore :
' Beauty is fled, and spirit is no more !

' GALEN, the grave ; officious SQUIRT was there,
' With fruitless grief and unavailing care :
' MACHAON too, the great MACHAON, known
' By his red cloak and his superior frown ;
' And why, he cry'd, this grief and this despair ?
' You shall again be well, again be fair ;
' Believe my oath ; (with that an oath he swore)
' False was his oath ; my beauty is no more !

References:
Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44766/town-eclogues-saturday-the-small-pox 

 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lady-mary-wortley-montagu 

 https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/town-eclogues-saturday-the-small-pox-summary-analysis.html#.Y7bqEuzML54 

Small Pox: https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/index.html 

 Ehrenpreis JE, Ehrenpreis ED. A Historical Perspective of Healthcare Disparity and Infectious Disease in the Native American Population. Am J Med Sci. 2022 Apr;363(4):288-294.

Riedel S. Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2005 Jan;18(1):21-5.

 Gibbs D. When a cane was the necessary complement of a physician. J R Coll Physicians Lond. 1999 Jan-Feb;33(1):85-9.

 Filippou D, Tsoucalas G, Panagouli E, Thomaidis V, Fiska A. Machaon, Son of Asclepius, the Father of Surgery. Cureus. 2020 Feb 19;12(2):e7038.

 https://www.randomactsofflowers.org/images/documents/RAFNational-Study-HomeEcologyofFlowersStudy.pdf

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Description: 
An immersive reading of excerpts from Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats with reflection on tuberculosis and the good death. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:

Ode to a Nightingale
by John Keats

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
         My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
         One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
         But being too happy in thine happiness,—
                That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
                        In some melodious plot
         Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
                Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

 O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
         Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
         Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!

[…]

         That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
                And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

 Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
         What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
         Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
         Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;

[…]

 Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
         Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,

[…] 

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
         I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
         To take into the air my quiet breath;
                Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
         To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
                While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
                        In such an ecstasy!
         Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
                   To thy high requiem become a sod.

 Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
         No hungry generations tread thee down;

References

Ode to a Nightingale: https://poets.org/poem/ode-nightingale 

 John Keats: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-keats 

Nightingale song: Digweed1 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Common_Nightingale%27s_song_1.ogg 

 Riva, M. From milk to rifampicin and back again: history of failures and successes in the treatment for tuberculosis. J Antibiot 67, 661–665 (2014).

 Sanderson C, Miller-Lewis L, Rawlings D, Parker D, Tieman J. "I want to die in my sleep"-how people think about death, choice, and control: findings from a Massive Open Online Course.

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Description:
An immersive reading of The Pool by HD with reflection on the clinical encounter, pregnancy, resuscitation, viruses and psychotherapy.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:
The Pool
By H.D.

Are you alive?
I touch you.
You quiver like a sea-fish.
I cover you with my net.
What are you—banded one?

References:
The Pool: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/13056/the-pool 

 HD: https://poets.org/poet/h-d 

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Sprin’ Fevah by Raymond Dandridge with reflection on spring fever, disability and polio.

Work
Sprin’ Fevah

 Dar’s a lazy, sortah hazy

   Feelin’ grips me, thoo an’ thoo;

An’ I feels lak doin’ less dan enythin’;

   Dough de saw is sharp an’ greasy,

Dough de task et han’ is easy,

   An’ de day am fair an’ breezy,

Dar’s a thief dat steals embition in de win’.

Kaint defy it, kaint deny it,

    Kaze it jes wont be denied;

It’s a mos’ pursistin’ stubbern sortah thin’;

    Anti Tox’ doan neutralize it;

Doctahs fail to analyze it;

    So I yiel’s (dough I despise it)

To dat res’less, wretchit fevah

    evah Sprin’. 

References
The Poet and Other Poems: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Poet_and_Other_Poems/yoYTAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover 

"Dandridge, Raymond Garfield 1882–1930 ." Contemporary Black Biography. . Encyclopedia.com. 26 Sep. 2022 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Dialect Poetry ." Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. . Encyclopedia.com. 6 Oct. 2022 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.

“Paul Laurence Dunbar” Poetry Foundation. <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/paul-laurence-dunbar>. 

https://www.tarabrach.com/rain/ 

Baicus A. History of polio vaccination. World J Virol. 2012 Aug 12;1(4):108-14.

H V W. Before the vaccines: medical treatments of acute paralysis in the 1916 new york epidemic of poliomyelitis. Open Microbiol J. 2014 Dec 12;8:144-7.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-mar-31-he-esoterica31-story.html 

Emanuel MB. Hay fever, a post industrial revolution epidemic: a history of its growth during the 19th century. Clin Allergy. 1988;18(3):295-304.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/polio.html 

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Description:
An immersive reading of Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole with reflection on cholera, clinicians, then and now.

Excerpts:
I went down to see the corpse. A single glance at the poor fellow showed me the terrible truth. The distressed face, sunken eyes, cramped limbs, and discoloured shrivelled skin were all symptoms which I had been familiar with very recently; and at once I pronounced the cause of death to be cholera. The Cruces people were mightily angry with me for expressing such an opinion; even my brother, although it relieved him of the odium of a great crime, was as annoyed as the rest. But by twelve o’clock that morning one of the Spaniard’s friends was attacked similarly, and the very people who had been most angry with me a few hours previously, came to me now eager for advice. […] There was no doctor in Cruces; the nearest approach to one was a little timid dentist, who was there by accident, and who refused to prescribe for the sufferer, and I was obliged to do my best. Selecting from my medicine chest—I never travel anywhere without it—what I deemed necessary, I went hastily to the patient, and at once adopted the remedies I considered fit. It was a very obstinate case, but by dint of mustard emetics, warm fomentations, mustard plasters on the stomach and the back, and calomel, at first in large then in gradually smaller doses, I succeeded in saving my first cholera patient in Cruces. […] It was scarcely surprising that the cholera should spread rapidly, for fear is its powerful auxiliary, and the Cruces people bowed down before the plague in slavish despair.

References
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23031/23031-h/23031-h.htm#CHAPTER_IV 

 Tulchinsky TH. John Snow, Cholera, the Broad Street Pump; Waterborne Diseases Then and Now. Case Studies in Public Health. 2018:77–99. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-804571-8.00017-2. Epub 2018 Mar 30. 

 Barnett, R. (2014). The sick rose, or, Disease and the art of medical illustration / Richard Barnett. D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.

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Description: 

An immersive reading of ‘When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer’ by Walt Whitman with reflection on ways of seeing and the art and science of medicine. 

Work: 

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman

 When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

References

 Dao, Analeigh, "Emotional and Social Responses to Stargazing: What Does It Mean To Lose the Dark?" (2016). Honors Projects. 180.

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Description: 

An immersive viewing of The Broken Column by Frida Kahlo reflection on serious illness, chronic pain, medical gaze and resilience.  

Artwork:

The Broken Column: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Broken_Column 

References:

Herrera, Hayden. Frida Kahlo: The Paintings. Harper Perennial. 2002.

Kahlo, Frida. The Diary of Frida Kahlo: an Intimate Self-Portrait. Abrams. 2005.

Vickers AJ, Cronin AM, Maschino AC, et al. Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Individual Patient Data Meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(19):1444–1453.

Budrys V. Neurological deficits in the life and works of Frida Kahlo. Eur Neurol. 2006;55(1):4-10.