How can poetry help us navigate hard times?
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Danielle Ofri – primary care physician, writer, and editor of the Bellevue Literary Review – about how poetry lends itself to the work of clinical medicine. She describes poems as containers for our experiences, and how metaphor can support us in the midst of uncertainty. As she puts it, “There is a poem out there, written just for you.”
Read the poem Gaudeamus Igitur by John Stone, which Danielle spoke about. She also mentioned 100 Poems to Break Your Heart and How to Read a Poem and How to Fall in Love with Poetry by Edward Hirsch.
Annie mentions Autobiography in Five Short Chapters by Portia Nelson as an accessible and gentle entry point into poetry, and Wendell Berry’s The Peace of Wild Things as a soothing poem on grief.
Interview: Annie Robinson
Commentary: Annie Robinson and Abigail Winkel
Editing: Abigail Ford Winkel
Sound Engineering: Greg Dorsainville
