Dueling poems of fieldwork supervisor/student
Juliet, my last beloved supervisor, came in to the office from seeing a patient one day, to tell me about this funny lady she had just seen. This lady had recited a poem to her (her own, of course) and then insisted Juliet take a copy. It was a religious poem about the days getting worse because God told us so (apocalyptic-style, yo). ANYWAY, we were discussing it and the end result was that I begged Juliet to write me a poem…even if it was just a sentence or two. So in my last week, she came in with this beautiful gem…any mistakes are mine in re-typing it up, since Juliet is the queen of grammar. All of it is relevant, believe it or not, lol. I was impressed. I MISS MY JULIET!!!!!!!!!!
“A Poem for Karen
Three months went by so fast…
Hard to believe so much time has passed!
Karen’s leaving us, it’s such a pity.
At least she still has Lester the Lion Kitty.
I’ve never met him, but I know he’s famous.
He’s on YouTube, where his name is
Well-known to all who read her Blog!
(some say Karen should have bought a dog)
So it’s Goodbye to our dear student
(When in Nashville, please be prudent!)
And remember your friends at “Hospital”
(X, Y, Juliet and was there a fourth…?
Have a great Christmas back in La Jolla
And think of Juliet when you see a sequoia.”
Here was my poetic response:
“A Poem for Juliet
You are not
the only one who can
write a poem.
But I cannot rhyme
Thyme; lime; chyme;
Creativity flows out as rhymes
flow in
So instead I cheat
Using little sentences
like this.
To make it look
as if I am
rather poetic.
I wanted you to know
that you are like
a sequoia.
Not morbidly woodenly obese
Or exceptionally tall
But you have a majestic presence
Powerful and graceful
An experience that cannot be forgotten.”