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Tools of the Trade: Poems for New Doctors
Being a doctor is a privilege; it is also very demanding and can be stressful, and to be able to look after others, we need to look after ourselves. We offer you this little book of poetry, Tools of the Trade, as a friend to provide inspiration, comfort and support as you begin work.
Tools of the Trade includes poems by poet-doctors Iain Bamforth, Rafael Campo, Glenn Colquhoun, Martin MacIntryre and Gael Turnbull.
Tools of the Trade includes poems by poet-doctors Iain Bamforth, Rafael Campo, Glenn Colquhoun, Martin MacIntryre and Gael Turnbull.
96 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2014
1 person is currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Lesley Morrison
5 booksDr Lesley Morrison is a retired GP, still involved in medical student teaching, who has been an active member of Medact since its inception and a member of MCANW prior to that. She has always felt passionately about the need to rid the world of nuclear weapons and about the importance of Medact’s work to show that disarmament, development, human rights and concern for the environment are inextricably interlinked.
Living in Peebles, to the south of Edinburgh, she has been a very active member in Medact Scotland, and as a Trustee aims to represent the views of members north of the border.
Living in Peebles, to the south of Edinburgh, she has been a very active member in Medact Scotland, and as a Trustee aims to represent the views of members north of the border.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 12, 2014
A review that is posted as a blog on thebmj.com.
A book of poems for every Scottish medical graduate
What should you give doctors when they graduate? An expensive stethoscope, a Ferrari, a lifetime subscription to the BMJ, a ticket to India, or a pet canary? The answer of “the medical community” in Scotland is a book of poems called Tools of the Trade. http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.... A copy will be given to every doctor graduating in Scotland this year, and I can’t think of anything more precious to give them.
The poems have been selected by Lesley Morrison, a GP, John Gillies, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners in Scotland (and a friend of mine), Ali Newell, associate chaplain in the Edinburgh University Chaplaincy, and Lilias Fraser of the Scottish Poetry Library. The book is a tribute to Morrison’s partner in a practice in Hawick, Pat Manson, who died in 2012 and was noted for his compassion, teaching, and love of poetry.
There is an understandable bias in the collection to doctor poets and Scottish poets, but I didn’t find any dud poems and several of them bewitched me as the best poems should. Some are in Gaelic, with translations, and some in Scots. The poems deal with birth, pain, sickness, suffering, death, and the privilege and challenge of being a doctor. Some are funny, as often is doctoring.
“In this short life That lasts an hour,” writes Emily Dickinson, “How much—how little—is Within our power.” That’s one for graduates to learn by heart. No poet has ever injected so much into so few words as Dickinson, but Adam Lindsay Gordon comes close:
Life is mostly froth and bubble
Two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in your own.
Some of the poems deal with the business of doctoring. In “The Guest House” by Jelaluddin Rumi translated by Coleman Barks writes:
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
Meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes,
Because each has been sent
As a guide from beyond.
That’s a poem for a last surgery on a Friday when you are exhausted. Recognise, because it’s true, that the patient has been sent “as a guide from beyond.” Remember too, as Iain Bamforth, writes in his poem:
The ear says more
Than any tongue.
And, as Andrew Greig writes:
The hard art
Lies in knowing when to stop.
I was once president of the Edinburgh University Poetry Society, and it’s been one of the great privileges of my life that I met and talked with some of the poets featured in this collection: Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean, Hamish Henderson, and Andrew Greig. Being a particularly obtuse medical student I learnt more from them and their poems than I did from all of my medical education.
Whenever I teach now I always ask those in the class if they have read a poem in the past month. Usually about a quarter has. I now read poetry every day, and life without poetry is unthinkable while life without television or newspapers is desirable. My wife asks me how the graduates will receive the book. Some, she thinks, will just put the book in a draw and forget it. But I think that if just one in 20 is turned onto poetry, the whole exercise will be worthwhile. For me it’s obvious that you cannot be a good doctor without some appreciation of and infusion of poetry.
And I loved the very last poem, by W S Graham:
The spaces in the poem are yours
They are the place where you
Can enter as yourself alone
And think anything in.
Tools of the Trade can be purchased from the Scottish Poetry Library for £5 plus postage at http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org....
http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2014/06/23/r...
A book of poems for every Scottish medical graduate
What should you give doctors when they graduate? An expensive stethoscope, a Ferrari, a lifetime subscription to the BMJ, a ticket to India, or a pet canary? The answer of “the medical community” in Scotland is a book of poems called Tools of the Trade. http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.... A copy will be given to every doctor graduating in Scotland this year, and I can’t think of anything more precious to give them.
The poems have been selected by Lesley Morrison, a GP, John Gillies, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners in Scotland (and a friend of mine), Ali Newell, associate chaplain in the Edinburgh University Chaplaincy, and Lilias Fraser of the Scottish Poetry Library. The book is a tribute to Morrison’s partner in a practice in Hawick, Pat Manson, who died in 2012 and was noted for his compassion, teaching, and love of poetry.
There is an understandable bias in the collection to doctor poets and Scottish poets, but I didn’t find any dud poems and several of them bewitched me as the best poems should. Some are in Gaelic, with translations, and some in Scots. The poems deal with birth, pain, sickness, suffering, death, and the privilege and challenge of being a doctor. Some are funny, as often is doctoring.
“In this short life That lasts an hour,” writes Emily Dickinson, “How much—how little—is Within our power.” That’s one for graduates to learn by heart. No poet has ever injected so much into so few words as Dickinson, but Adam Lindsay Gordon comes close:
Life is mostly froth and bubble
Two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in your own.
Some of the poems deal with the business of doctoring. In “The Guest House” by Jelaluddin Rumi translated by Coleman Barks writes:
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
Meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes,
Because each has been sent
As a guide from beyond.
That’s a poem for a last surgery on a Friday when you are exhausted. Recognise, because it’s true, that the patient has been sent “as a guide from beyond.” Remember too, as Iain Bamforth, writes in his poem:
The ear says more
Than any tongue.
And, as Andrew Greig writes:
The hard art
Lies in knowing when to stop.
I was once president of the Edinburgh University Poetry Society, and it’s been one of the great privileges of my life that I met and talked with some of the poets featured in this collection: Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean, Hamish Henderson, and Andrew Greig. Being a particularly obtuse medical student I learnt more from them and their poems than I did from all of my medical education.
Whenever I teach now I always ask those in the class if they have read a poem in the past month. Usually about a quarter has. I now read poetry every day, and life without poetry is unthinkable while life without television or newspapers is desirable. My wife asks me how the graduates will receive the book. Some, she thinks, will just put the book in a draw and forget it. But I think that if just one in 20 is turned onto poetry, the whole exercise will be worthwhile. For me it’s obvious that you cannot be a good doctor without some appreciation of and infusion of poetry.
And I loved the very last poem, by W S Graham:
The spaces in the poem are yours
They are the place where you
Can enter as yourself alone
And think anything in.
Tools of the Trade can be purchased from the Scottish Poetry Library for £5 plus postage at http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org....
http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2014/06/23/r...
October 6, 2019
I bought this at a medical conference in which one of the presenters, straight-faced, said, "Have you ever considered prescribing patients a poem?" Well, no, considering their response to exercise as a wellness concept, I doubt poetry would go down well. Also, the poems in this collection just aren't very good. I don't think medicine works well as a subject for poetry.
There's a few exceptions - The Door, The Postscript, What the Doctor Said. Overall, though, I use poetry to escape from medicine, not as another way to inhabit it.
There's a few exceptions - The Door, The Postscript, What the Doctor Said. Overall, though, I use poetry to escape from medicine, not as another way to inhabit it.
Want to read
April 14, 2019from WSJ article 2/26/18
January 2, 2021
Surprisingly beautiful collection of poems!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews