A physician taps the healing power of poetry
Laurie Rosenblatt, MD
Laurie Rosenblatt, MD, is a psychiatrist in the department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at Dana-Farber. She is also a published poet who regularly incorporates writing into her personal and professional life. In this conversation with staff member Lauren Carr, she shares her thoughts on what inspires and drives her to write.
When did you start writing poetry?
I wrote sporadically until college, when an English professor encouraged me to take it more seriously. During medical school, I took a break but continued to read poetry and explore the work of different poets. My father's death in 2002 made me wonder why I wasn't writing, since it had always been an important aspect of who I am. So I started again.
Has it helped you in your personal and professional life?
Yes, writing poetry helps me understand my feelings and remember and honor those I've lost. It's also a way to empathize with people who find themselves in situations that I've not personally experienced. I have written several poems in memory of my father, and I'm working on a book of poems about my brother's death from AIDS in 2004.
I've also written poems from the standpoint of a woman undergoing chemotherapy and a woman facing recurrence, among others. Some of the background for these poems about cancer came from a project I did with Victoria Alexander (also here at Dana-Farber) in which we interviewed 15 women with advanced cancer and wrote first-person monologues from those conversations. Our goal was to keep their voices and experiences alive for those they left behind, and to have their stories available for people who will face similar experiences.
What was the inspiration for your poem "Comfort Care" (at the right)?
It's a meditation on the gradual changes one sees and feels as a person dies. As my father lay dying, I became acutely aware of how much I would miss the solidity and familiarity of his body, perhaps as much as I would miss the person he was emotionally and intellectually. I remembered a woman I once treated who wouldn't place her husband in a nursing home, even as he entered the final stages of dementia. Now I understand what she had tried to tell me: that the presence of a loved one's body provides comfort and solace.
Do you write poetry regularly?
I write most days. I do it because I have to, in some way. I love the technical challenge of creating a wellmade poem, along with the difficult task of expressing something that others will recognize and/or respond to.
