Medical poetry

On Friday morning with Phil back from Berlin, we worked with older people at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, creating poetry about medication. It was a revealing session, with patients terribly sad stories of pain and their honesty in regard to their experiences of their hospital stay. Below is an example of one of the poems…

Actressing

It’s hard at first to take painkillers
but you get used after a while
and you take them for peace sake
and it helps you to get back to your act

You’ve always been used to not having them
you’d never been poorly at all
and then you started to be ill
never missed a day in your life

Just keep trying and trying: finally you do
couldn’t swallow them quick enough
and so you become a singer and a dancer
happy as a sunboy now




Emily Thyme
17th October 2008

for more examples please visit www.arthur-and-martha.co.uk