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Reflections from the 5th International Symposium on Poetry and Medicine by Clare Best<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This year\u2019s Symposium invited us to focus on how we might begin to define the term \u2018medical poetry\u2019 and asked if that is even a useful aim. Michael Hulse started the day with a thought-provoking talk proposing that the Romantic ego has evolved and survived in the area of medical poetry whereas it is now rare in other contemporary poetry. He argued that the natural successors of the Romantic poets, those foregrounding the self in extremis<\/em>, are concerned with what he terms \u2018primary medical poetry\u2019 \u2013\u00a0 in which a person writes about his\/her own experience of illness or treatment from the point of view of an existential self. \u2018Secondary medical poetry\u2019 is the term Michael used to describe poetry written about medical experiences happening to a close other. He saw \u2018tertiary medical poetry\u2019 as including poetry that stands at another remove from the medical experience, being more engaged with scientific, historical, ethical and other aspects of medicine.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michael\u2019s talk was a helpful starting point, and throughout the day speakers came back and back to the different kinds of medical poetry he had suggested. After years of hearing nothing but the term \u2018confessional poetry\u2019 used in reference to poetry of extremis<\/em> written in the first person, I liked Michael\u2019s idea of affirming \u2018a central literary site\u2019 for the Romantic ego.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A particular highlight of the Symposium, for me, was Sandy Goldbeck-Wood\u2019s beautifully fluent and convincing presentation of her work on how biography drives biology. I have always been interested in how the body expresses adverse experiences as symptoms, and I found myself nodding as Sandy spoke about how \u2018both poetry and psychosomatic illness might be seen to be forms of embodied feeling or knowledge, both resisting \u201cpurely conscious\u201d forms of communication\u2019. Yes!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There were many, many other highlights, including Alan Beattie\u2019s warm and generous account of Norman Nicholson\u2019s life and poetry, Ahmed Hankir\u2019s powerfully dramatic rendition of his ideas around the wounded healer, and Jens Lohfert Jorgensen\u2019s brilliantly engaging presentation of the Danish poet Morten Sondergaard\u2019s Wordpharmacy<\/em> (do have a look at http:\/\/www.wordpharmacy.com<\/a>) \u2013 I\u2019ll be ordering my copy immediately.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then there was poetry itself of course: poems of medicine and surgery, remedy and reverie, diagnosis and prognosis, all kinds of poems to make you laugh and cry. I was honoured to present some of mine from Self-portrait without Breasts<\/em> alongside Rebecca Goss reading vivid and beautiful poems from Her Birth<\/em> and Lesley Saunders reading from her stunning collection Cloud Camera<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Philip Gross gave gorgeous readings from Deep Field <\/em>and Later, <\/em>leading us on into the final part of the day which celebrated the winning and commended poets in the three categories (Young Poet, NHS and Open Awards) of the 2014 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. Conor McKee won the Young Poet section with \u2018I Will Not Cut for Stone\u2019, Ellen Storm won the NHS section with \u2018Out of Hospital Arrest\u2019 and Jane Draycott won the Open section with \u2018The Return\u2019. Many congratulations to all the winning and commended poets.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I came away from the Symposium once again inspired and uplifted by the truth and power of poetry that addresses medical subjects. I came away knowing that in the face of extreme and threatening medical events, in situations where our identities are challenged and even deconstructed or changed forever, poetry can excite us into new appreciations of life and of who we are and can be. As I see it, the more science probes and uncovers the physical and medical experiences of our lives, the more we need poetry to interpret and express these experiences. Poetry and medicine are perfect companions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thank you Donald Singer, Michael Hulse, Nicola Williams and all the others including the judges Sarah Crown, Robert Francis QC, Philip Gross and Kit Wright, who made Saturday happen. It was a wonderfully rich day. I\u2019m already looking forward to next year\u2019s Symposium.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Find out more about the Hippocrates Initiative for Poetry and Medicine at: www.hippocrates-poetry.org<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Clare Best<\/p>\n