from Ward 64, by Sarah Broom.
there is poetry all over the walls
of oncologyand I want to get out
Extract from Ward 64. Read the whole poem (Scottish Poetry Library website)
Commentary
Sarah Broom was a New Zealand poet who found she had lung cancer when pregnant with her third child in 2008. She died in 2013. Her poem Ward 64 (from Tigers at Awhitu, Oxford Poets / Carcanet Press Ltd, 2010) is featured in Tools of the Trade, a short book of poems given to all new doctors graduating in Scotland.
Further info
- This poem appears in Tools of the Trade
- About Sarah Broom
- Image shows poetry on the walls at Angel Island, San Francisco. From Roger Wagner on Flickr (Creative Commons). Angel Island was a receiving base for immigrants from Asia, mostly Chinese, between 1910 and 1940. Some stayed years. Poetry carved in the walls was repeatedly covered up and re-exposed.