Poetry in a Time of Crisis

The pandemic is still taking its toll on everyone. Malaise is widespread and multilayered, affecting all our lives, but having a disproportionate impact on underrepresented populations. There is a possibility that Poetry (and other art forms) can offer us a safe space to help us navigate this global crisis. Poetry and art can provide consolation, healing and inspiration. The last two lines of a new poem by Dominican-American poet Julia Alvarez, “How will the pandemic affect poetry” asks:

What if only poetry will see us through?

What if this poem is the vaccine already working inside you?

We therefore invite you to visit our Poetry and Practice section to read selected poems chosen by our colleagues from around the world. The Magic Castle is psychiatrist Kerim Munir’s tribute to “a special colleague and friend, Carolyn Bridgemohan, who worked in the Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Division at the Boston Children’s Hospital and died on August 16th, 2019”. This poem was written on August 22nd, 2019. Jennifer Harrison, who is a psychiatrist and also a distinguished poet, has honored us by offering her own poem, "For the New Baby”, which was stimulated by the birth of her grandson and she writes “I found great tenderness and wonder in meeting my grandson eventually after lockdown and I have delighted in his growing attachment to me. I find myself watching his development more closely than I have ever noticed before, either at work as a child psychiatrist or within family. I’ve fallen in love with him, perhaps as only a grandmother can”. Alicia Lieberman has chosen a poem entitled “V’Ahavta”, a poem by Puerto Rican Jewish poet, Auroa Levis Morales, because “this poem contains a powerful expression of the message that the practice of infant mental health is inseparable from the quest for a better society”. Aditi Subramaniam selected “Paper Boats” by Rabindranath Tagore, the great Indian poet, writer, philosopher and social reformer, because, she writes, “as a practitioner, what resonate with this poem are identity and hope!”. To coincide with the third anniversary of Berry Brazelton’s passing, we feature Jayne Singer’s own poem, “Air and Water”, in which she recalls the moment she was told that Berry had died and the poem “came to me some short weeks later”. Australian architect, Niels Warren, presents two of his own poems, which describe how he found “direction and peace of mind in a time of darkness”. For the first time, we present, not a poem, but a series of sculptures, entitled “The Newborn” by Bulgarian sculptor, Constantin Brancusi and chosen by Drina Candilis-Huisman. The vision of the Newborn that Brancusi offers us evokes in Drina “a sense of wonder at the sacredness of the beginnings of life”. Inger-Pauline Landsem selected “The Art of Helping Others to Understand” by the Danish philosopher, Søren Kirkegaard. She chose it, she writes, “because it has inspired me in my work as a nurse in Norway, caring for sick children and their families over the last forty years”. The poem, “Dear Children”, chosen by Susan Nicolson, is written by her Medical School mentor and friend, Ian Balfour Kerr and describes his feelings as he watches his still-sleeping children. The three poems chosen by Deborah Weatherston - and written by Deborah herself - were inspired by her experience as an infant mental health home visitor. You can also read Lise Johnson’s choice of “On Children” by Kahil Gibran, which for her, highlights the challenge facing parents “to remain clear-eyed about who this person is”. Reflecting on the challenges facing Black people, Constance Keefer chose Enzo Silon Surin’s poem, “When Night Fills with Premature Exits”, with its focus on racism. Campbell Paul’s choice is taken from “The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke” by C. J. Dennis (1876-1938): XIII: The Kid, a poem written for a world that also was in turmoil. You can read our first entry, Sharon Old’s “Bathing the Newborn”, chosen by Arietta Slade, because of what poem says about the infant’s experience of fear.

We would also like to invite you to submit your own reflections on these poems in the comments section and we also invite you to submit your own choice.