Poetry as Space in Medicine

Abstract

Poetry as a space in medicine can be depicted as a nuanced caveat of narrative and medicine. Patient voices can be prominently showcased emerging from written communications, interviews in the clinic, as well as in acts of self-expression. Writing and reading of patient-doctor memoirs and fiction such as “A Mango Shaped Space” by Wendy Mass story and Joyce’s Ulysses can help to situate patient voices and knowledge within medical spaces. The thematic nature of doctor-patient interactions are important because patient voices provide an exchange of critical information and pose a critical look at the patient’s view of their own dis-ease and diagnosis’. Interactions between the patient and doctor may invoke different health literacies on the patient and reflect specific power structures that create an unequal precedent. Through patient communication being at the forefront, doctors can respect the patient’s needs. This paper reflects and encourages co-creation of the patient’s story as clinical practice. This data will create a space for the patient while helping to deconstruct case reports, case notes, and medical records that may stand at the forefront of communication. Experiences are shaped by life’s canonical lens. The lens captures what is transformed, refracted, and emulated by the reality of humanistic experience and the epistemological state of being. Thus, communicating science and medicine as well as poetry and prose permits the foundational premise of human duplicity. This duplicity consists of a double-sidedness; a complexity that can be captured by a lens...one that is canonical and multifaceted. This lens is writing techniques such as reflective writing and poetry. The canonical lens takes precedent in the mechanical and nuanced practice of pinpointing issues within the human experience. This paper maps how writing practices emancipate intrinsic attitudes, ideologies, and behavioral patterns which helps to discover knowledge about patient experiences and histories.