The Cancer Poetry Project: Poems by Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them

by Miller, Karin B.

• ISBN13: 9781577491002
• ISBN10: 1577491009
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Natl Book Network

Summary

An anthology of cancer-related poetry from survivors, family caregivers, and health care providers.

Author Biography

Karin B. Miller is a published poet and the wife of a cancer survivor.

Table of Contents

Poems by Theme	xvi
Preface	xxi
Foreword	xxiii
POEMS BY CANCER PATIENTS
I entered the room, naked	3	(1)
Nancy Louise Peterson
it's never too late	4	(2)
Nancy Louise Peterson
Farewell to Hair	6	(2)
Terri Hanson
There is a river running in the blood of him	8	(2)
James McGrath
Suddenly, life changes	10	(1)
tommie ortega
before and after	11	(1)
tommie ortega
A Woman Argues with the Casting Director	12	(2)
Kathleen A. Rogers
the good doctors	14	(2)
Ruthann Robson
Prostate Cancer as a Sporting Event	16	(2)
Ric Masten
``Poor Devil!''	18	(2)
Ric Masten
Finding God at Montefiore Hospital	20	(1)
Lorraine Ryan
It seems we can live with cancer now	21	(1)
Bonnie Maurer
The Answer	22	(2)
Bonnie Maurer
Bi Bye-Bye, Buy	24	(2)
Mary Milton
The Cancer Patient Talks Back	26	(2)
Molly Redmond
Because a world may be called into being	28	(1)
Gary Young
A Man Learning Women	29	(3)
David Zeiger
Letters Received	32	(2)
Denise Larrabee
When I inherit the star	34	(2)
Lauren E. Alexanderson
Reminiscence	36	(1)
Ruth Molly James
The Spy	37	(1)
Marlene Rosen Fine
The Breast	38	(2)
Marlene Rosen Fine
Oncology in Advent	40	(2)
Bonnie Thurston
Impotence	42	(1)
Harvey Overton
Variations on My Room in the Bone Marrow Unit: In the Room of Cows	43	(1)
Julie Moulds
One Hundred and Ten Days	44	(2)
Julie Moulds
Midnight in the Pretty Little House	46	(1)
Greg Keith
First Summer	47	(3)
Joan Annsfire
When I Had cancer I thought	50	(2)
Mark Sheffield Brown
There's not a book on how to do this	52	(2)
Sharon Doyle
How to Stay Alive	54	(2)
Judith Strasser
Reconstruction	56	(2)
Lisa Katz
Diamonds	58	(2)
Marcia Renee Goodman
Bay Bridge/Rosh Chodesh	60	(2)
Dori Ehrlich
How Will Death Arrive?	62	(3)
Mildred Erickson Buzenberg
Julie Ann in the Bone Marrow Unit	65	(1)
John Rybicki
Outside the Bone Marrow Unit	66	(2)
John Rybicki
Diagnosis	68	(1)
Natalie Olsen
Guinea Pig	69	(1)
Julie Cadwallader-Staub
This Month	70	(2)
Julie Cadwallader-Staub
Slow Dancing at the Med-Inn	72	(2)
F. Richard Thomas
Chores	74	(2)
Perie Longo
A Walk at Dusk	76	(1)
Jere Truer
Numb	77	(1)
Florence Weinberger
Absence of Place	78	(2)
Rev. Charles Brackbill
Nephrostomy Tube Surgery at Age Thirty-Four	80	(1)
Karin B. Miller
Greek	81	(1)
Karin B. Miller
Odds	82	(1)
Jane Eaton Hamilton
A Lesson	83	(1)
Judy Rohm
Chocolates	84	(2)
Marjorie Woodbury
The Seven Sorrows	86	(3)
Nancy Madison Fitzgerald
March 29, 1985	89	(1)
Nancy Madison Fitzgerald
Survival Diptych	90	(2)
David Graham
Elegy	92	(2)
Tad Richards
Valentine's Day, 1975	94	(2)
Patricia A. Joslin
Richard Leaving	96	(2)
Ann Sanfedele
Mourning Doves	98	(1)
Rebecca Wee
Widow	99	(3)
Rebecca Wee
The cancerous cell	102	(5)
James Doyle
POEMS BY FAMILY MEMBERS
song	107	(1)
Kevin Smith
She's All Right	108	(1)
Darci D. Schummer
Cigarettes	109	(1)
Suzanne Frischkorn
Poem of the Week	110	(2)
Veneta Masson
Not Listening	112	(2)
Virginia Chase Sutton
I Will Breathe and Breathe	114	(2)
Jeanne Bryner
History	116	(1)
Vera Kroms
mother, I am feeling myself slip	117	(3)
Luissa Joy Chekowsky
Big Sale Today	120	(2)
Carol Kapaun Ratchenski
Ready or Not	122	(2)
David Sten Herrstrom
After the Diagnosis	124	(2)
Carolyn Hall
Lucky	126	(2)
Tony Gloeggler
Palm Sunday	128	(2)
Charles Oberkehr
Five-Year Anniversary	130	(1)
Kymberly Stark Williams
A Mother's Despair	131	(1)
Mary H. Amundsen
Shape Shifter	132	(2)
Scott Wiggerman
A Fantasy (Thirty Years Later)	134	(2)
Mary Gorder
Self-Examination	136	(2)
Clinton B. Campbell
In the Mirror	138	(1)
John Grey
Mother Eulogy	139	(3)
Shannon Sexton
Adagio for Ginny	142	(2)
Karen Leahy
Giving the Darkness Shape	144	(2)
Laura Stearns
Let Us Now Praise	146	(2)
Judith McCombs
Practicing My Goodbye after He's Gone	148	(2)
Jeffrey L. Stangl
In Cold Dreams before Dawn	150	(2)
Muriel Fish
An Explanation to My Dying Daughter	152	(1)
Francie Freeman
Courage	153	(1)
Francie Freeman
Yahrzeit	154	(2)
Dr. Bonnie Salomon
Windstorm	156	(1)
Larry Schug
A Mother and a Daughter	157	(1)
Elizabeth Ann Johnson
Red	158	(2)
Elizabeth Ann Johnson
The Miracle of Milkweed	160	(2)
Ross Klongerbo
On the Beach	162	(2)
Stephen J. Kudless
Making Pies in the Dark	164	(2)
Elaine Wright Christensen
Chrysalis	166	(2)
Brian Long
Again, July	168	(2)
Kathleen Large
One Last Favor	170	(2)
Marilyn L. Taylor
Garden Variety	172	(2)
Colette Giles Tennant
Persephone	174	(2)
Janine Soucie Kelley
Sharing	176	(3)
Sam Friedman
POEM BY FRIENDS AND HEALTH ADVISORS
The Wrong Month	179	(1)
Anthony Russell White
The diagnosis	180	(2)
Majid Mohiuddin
Awkward Friends	182	(2)
Laurel Winter
She Asked for a Joke or Poem	184	(2)
Charles Rossiter
My Friend	186	(1)
Joanne Bergbom
Say Yes	187	(1)
Marc J. Straus
Rocky Road	188	(2)
Marc J. Straus
Double Mastectomy	190	(2)
Ann Campanella
The Door	192	(2)
David H. Huffman
Pesach	194	(2)
Elizabeth Rosner
Leaving the Clinic	196	(2)
Marilyn L. Taylor
Seed	198	(1)
Floyd Skloot
In Remission	199	(1)
Floyd Skloot
To a friend now separated from me by illness	200	(2)
Gretchen Fletcher
Dinner Party	202	(2)
Susan Steger Welsh
When Autumn Came	204	(1)
Deborah Gordon Cooper
The Widow Speaks	205	(1)
John Manesis
There is a woman falling	206	(2)
Karen Haas-Howland
I did not know his name	208	(2)
Terri S. Hudson
For Lorraine	210	(2)
Dr. Nelson L. Rhodus
Theology	212	(2)
Sima Rabinowitz
Untitled	214	(2)
B. A. (Bonnie) St. Andrews
Empathetic Ode	216	(2)
Dorothy Stone
Clay Pigeons	218	(2)
Elizabeth Winthrop
In the Eighties	220	(2)
Helen Schary Motro
Turban	222	(2)
Suellen Kone Wedmore
Gifts	224	(2)
Patti Marshock
Friends for Life	226	(2)
Rochelle Jewel Shapiro
Lines for Spring	228	(2)
Rebecca Pierre
For Nina on Her Sixteenth Birthday	230	(2)
Donna Pucciani
The Thirteenth Floor	232	(2)
Davi Walders
The Daughter, the Moon and Jamaica	234	(2)
Kate Gray
Hiking in the Anza-Borrego Desert after Surgery	236	(2)
Francine Sterle
Snatching	238	(1)
Christopher Gutkind
Apartment on Third and Brooks	239	(1)
Kjersti Reed
Glenn's Laugh	240	(2)
Kjersti Reed
Good Night	242	(2)
Jo Nelson
Walk Me into the Morning	244	(2)
Beth Shorr Jaffe
An Oncology Nurse's Tribute	246	(1)
Barbara Hunt, RN, BSN
For a friend lying in intensive care waiting for her white blood cells to rejuvenate after a bone marrow transplant	247
Barbara Crooker