Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

The Greatest Gift

As I Watch You Struggle
by Lynn Ciesielski

When words are the greatest gift I give,
what do I offer when there are none?
I have no balm for your spine,
No salve comforts you.

Your framework implodes behind
a wrecking ball
whether you stand, sit or lie.

Doctors use numbers, they know
there are no words, no poetry to define it,
to relieve it.
Loneliness is deeper than writers’ block
as I reach out to connect.
But what you want so many times
is to be left alone.

For more of Lynne's poems: Download Poems by Lynn Ciesielski

Author Bio:  Lynn's background is in Special Education.  She has an MS from SUNY College at Buffalo and taught in city schools for over eighteen years.  Now that she is retired, she spends most of her time writing and traveling with her husband.  This past year her first chapbook, I Speak in Tongues was released by Foothills Publishing.  Her work has also appeared in Wild Goose Poetry Review, Buffalo News, Transparent Words, Barbaric Yawp and upcoming in Slipstream.  Please Email Lynn with comments.

Nick grew up in Buffalo but spent a good part of his life drag racing around the United States and in Europe.  He has won a number of trophies and has worked alternately as a builder, a driver and a top fuel mechanic.  When he recovers from his illness his goal is to drive 300 miles per hour at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.  This would break his own speed record.

Lynn and Nick met online and have been together for almost five years.

 

The Eternal

Our theories of the eternal are as valuable as are those that a chick which has not broken its way through its shell might form of the outside world.

The Buddha

To a Mouse

On my morning run today, I looked down and, at my feet, I saw a "wee, sleekit, cowran timorous beastie."

This is the mouse I saw today

Reminded me of Bobbie Burn's immortal poem "To a Mouse." You can read it here or listen to it in a fine You Tube video. 

 

Booksigning, Bach and Reading

Lisa Wong, a pediatrician, musician and president of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, wiil be speaking in Stockbridge, Massachusetts on Thursday evening, July 19th.  

Booksigning, Bach, and Reading
Thursday July 19 at 7:00 p.m.
First Congregational Church of Stockbridge
4 Main Street, Srockbridge, MA

Download Flyer for Stockbridge Congregational Church 7.19.12 FINAL

Here is a message from her:

"Dear friends:

In case you're in the Berkshires on Thursday 7/19, please join me for a reading/performance  evening at First Congregational Church in Stockbridge to introduce my new book, Scales to Scalpels: Doctors who Practice the Healing Arts of Music and Medicine.

I'll be sharing some of my thoughts about the many connections between music and healing, from the perspective of the medical musician, caregivers and patients, and will touch a bit on the exciting field of the neuroscience of music.

In the spirit of Albert Schweitzer, who was devoted to Bach, healing, and service, the presentation will include excerpts from Bach's Goldberg Variations especially chosen to augment the remarks and performed by Tanglewood Music Center faculty members Norman Fischer, Matt Dane and Andy Jennings.

I hope you can make it and join in the discussion about music and healing! The evening is free and open to the public.

Sincerely,

Lisa M. Wong, M.D.
www.drlisamwong.com - visit my new website!

Queen Anne's Lace

by William Carlos Williams (Listen to the Poem)

Her body is not so white as

anemony petals nor so smooth—nor

so remote a thing. It is a field

of the wild carrot taking

the field by force; the grass

does not raise above it.

Here is no question of whiteness,

white as can be, with a purple mole

at the center of each flower.

Each flower is a hand’s span

of her whiteness. Wherever

his hand has lain there is

a tiny purple blemish. Each part

is a blossom under his touch

to which the fibres of her being

stem one by one, each to its end,

until the whole field is a

white desire, empty, a single stem,

a cluster, flower by flower,

a pious wish to whiteness gone over—

or nothing.

LIsten

Poems: From a Premed and a Retired Physician

Stephanie Muscat, a premed from Stanford University, and Monroe Richman, a long- retired family physician living and jousting on Kauai, Hawaii have sent us poems.  This alpha and omega pairing make a fine addition to Cell 2 Soul.

Stephanie Rose Muscat

 Stephanie Rose Muscat, a Stanford undergraduate, is  cheerfully delaying the onset of real life by studying Human Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience.  She dabbles in studio art, and seeks out sculpture gardens around campus as venues for literary pursuits. She wants to be an artist / neuroscientist / adventurer when she grows up.  You may contact her at: SRM Email.

The Illusionist

Doctor I’m hopeless and you are the cause:

Stitch me some sutures and wrap me in gauze

Stethoscope magic! Prescribe me Illusion

wave files and forceps across the contusion.

implant incantations around where it’s sore...

For the complete The Illusionist and Table Legs) see  Download The-illusionist-muscat-1

 

*****

The Sound of a Smile by Monroe Richman

The shadows of the day

Vanish like the mist

With sun or the lightest breeze.

But pause and think how a sound lightens the day

Children's laughter, unrestrained, with a potency beyond belief

A refrain that brings a smile

that can not be contained

Listen then to the sound

or imagine it if you will

A sound unheard yet you hear it still,

and smile.

Love,

Grandpa

Author Bio:  Monroe Richman is a retired family doctor living at Poipu, Kauai, Hawaii.  He may be reached at: Email Monroe.

 

 

 

Chicory

"Chicory, Cichorium intybus, is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Various varieties are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons (blanched buds), or for roots (var. sativum), which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. It lives as a wild plant on roadsides in its native Europe, and in North America and Australia, where it has become naturalized." (Wikipedia)   Chicory thrives in Williamsown and brightens our roadsides.

Children and Flowers

For those who proclaim
they’ve grown weary of children,
there are no flowers

Basho

Entrepreneurial Car Washers

 

Their Flyer