And Bronwyn, thank you so much for recommending “Sloan-Kettering.” I’m going to track that down. And I would like to mention “Divine Honors” by Hilda Raz, who writes about her experience with breast cancer. Raz is the editor of Prairie Schooner, a renowned literary journal. Oh, and speaking of literary journals–if you aren’t familiar with it, check out the Bellevue Literary Journal, published by the Department of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center. It’s awesome.

Charles, I keep thinking when I read the wonderful selections you’ve posted in these various entries, of other wonderful poems…

Right now I’m thinking of Abba Kovner’s final collection of poems (which in Hebrew was sort of one long poem, but translated very well into a collection) about his life with, and death by, the ravages of throat cancer. The collection is short, sublime, and called simply ‘Sloan-Kettering”. There is nothing self-pitying or maudlin about it– it cuts to the quick, though, and is everything that poetry should be. It’s absolutely beautiful, insightful, and deeply human. As is so much of what has been posted here.