"Love and Death" Connects Medicine and Poetry at Grand Rounds

On Friday, October 20, Dartmouth Medical School's (DMS) Department of Medicine will host an unusual medical Grand Rounds conference. The speakers, U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall and Patrick Clary, founder and owner of The Palliative Care Service, will present "Love and Death," a presentation on the intersection of illness, caregiving, grief, and poetry.

The event was organized by Ira Byock, director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) and a long-time friend and colleague of Clary. Clary, also a published poet, introduced Hall and Byock. Shortly after Hall was named the U.S. Poet Laureate in June 2006, Byock approached him about the possibility of presenting Grand Rounds. According to Byock, the poet responded, "I have no idea what Grand Rounds are, but if it's coming from you, I'd be delighted to present them."

Hall, who lives in New Hampshire, is the author of numerous books of poetry, including White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems (2006), The Painted Bed (2002), and Without: Poems (1998). He may be best known for his elegiac works, specifically his writings about the illness and death of his wife, the poet Jane Kenyon.Clary, whose book of poetry, Dying for Beginners is due out this month from Lost Borders Press, is also a physician who has made it his mission to focus on the quality of life of those with advanced, complex, or terminal illnesses. Like Hall, who has been a mentor, Clary's writing deals with issues of mortality, grief, and loss, both personal and as aspects of his professional life.

Grand Rounds, explains Byock, is a weekly forum in which physicians and researchers are invited to present their work. The presentations are a teaching tool and usually focus on a scientific or clinical topic. Clary says the teaching goals for "Love and Death" are to reintroduce medical professionals to "poetry as an art form that may most directly access experiences of grief and loss," and to explore the need for empathy among medical providers.

Byock hopes that the medical professionals and students who attend the lecture will take something profound away from it. "Good poetry allows us to perceive things we might miss," he says. "It stops us and holds our attention and illuminates something real. Donald Hall and Patrick Clary allow us to see, and more importantly, feel how illness, caregiving, and grief both tear at and expand our ability to live deeply."

"Love and Death" is open to the public and will take place from 8 to 9 a.m. in Auditorium G on Level 4 of DHMC.

By GENEVIEVE HAAS

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