Maybe someday I'll write a poem
June 12, 2007
This week's feature is Janet Cromer's second article in her three-part series on medical humanities in the Greater Boston Area. In it, she describes the Creative Arts Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which offers patients, their families, and staff an opportunity to use their creativity to explore how cancer affects their life. The program's underlying message, according to Susan DeCristofaro, RN, MSN, OCN, director of patient and family education, is, "Art is healing."
When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer nearly a year ago, my reaction was different than I had expected. When I had entertained the idea the biopsy might come back positive, I imagined feeling a sense of panic. I imagined wanting to deny hearing what I actually heard. Instead, what I felt was a quiet certainty. I had cancer. I'd obviously had it for a while, and there was nothing to do except move ahead with whatever needed to be done.
Over the year that's ensued, I've shared my cancer experience with family and friends by writing about it. I've described exploring the various options for treatment, kept them informed about test results, described the hospital and surgical experience, and reported the good news we received after my first post-surgery PSA. What I haven't done, at least until now, is shared my sense of that initial feeling. That's partly because I still don't understand it myself, and there is something about it that requires more than a journal entry like the ones I've been sending out.
I intend to write a poem about that feeling. I've already tried. I haven't gotten it right yet, but just the act of trying has helped me gain insight about the meaning of cancer in my life. I'll write the poem because I'll learn from it, and maybe others will read it and learn from it too.
Don't miss the slide show that accompanies Janet's article. David Stone has taken pictures of some of the powerful artwork produced by people who have participated in the Creative Arts Program at Dana-Farber. There's one image I particularly like. It's a detail from a grand sculpture created by pediatric patients with cancer in association with sculptor Patty Rosenblatt. It's a clay heart against the wall with the words "Remember Me" carved into it. That's why the Creative Arts Program is important, because that is what art does. It affirms a life, even when that life has been disrupted by a potentially devastating disease.
Joseph Saling
Contact On Call Managing Editor Joe Saling at joesaling@comcast.net.
