Today I found a wonderful story in the NY Times about folks with cancer who are writing poetry as a way to deal with it. There are some great comments about some of my favorite poets, Donald Hall, Jane Kenyon, and I added a comment about Tory Dent -- who's poem Black Milk I posted to my Laundry Songs blog yesterday. I have a friend who's just been diagnosed with breast cancer, a best friend, and I feel so dissoriented by the news. I don't have a place in my life for this information --yet. Writing -- I should give it a try.
Since Kyle's poem talks about growing a prickly pear cactus, I offer two photos. If you read the NY Times article, you'll find links to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and to another article in the Times about a study showing that newly diagnosed patients who write expressively about their feelings have improved quality of life. There is a beautiful photo of a person reading a journal at the top of that article, which I'd love to post here -- but I don't know the rules about posting other publications photos -- so, you'll have to go to the NYTimes to see for yourself.
One patient wrote: “Don’t get me wrong, cancer isn’t a gift, it just showed me what the gifts in my life are.”
