Bursting with Danger and Music

Coulehan, Jack

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Collection (Poems)

Annotated by:
Kohn, Martin
  • Date of entry: Aug-01-2013
  • Last revised: May-27-2013

Summary

This collection,  Jack Coulehan's 5th,  contains 69 poems, almost all of them published previously in medical journals or poetry magazines. Earlier versions of several of the poems also appeared in 3 of his 4 previous collections, The Knitted Glove, First Photographs of Heaven, and The Heavenly Ladder. The book is divided into 6 sections, all (except for After Chekhov), titled after one of the poem's found within the section: Deep Structures, All Soul's Day, After Chekhov, He Lectures on Grace, Levitation, and Natural History. Many of these poems express the tension between order and disorder, the expected and unexpected, and the tenderness and steadiness needed to care for others and our natural world. These works call the reader to open up to the deeper meaning and compassion necessary for the struggle to remain human while caring for suffering humanity.

Miscellaneous

Jack Coulehan is a giant in our field. He is clinician (retired since 2007), teacher, scholar, and poet.  His contributions to the field beyond his poetry include remarkably insightful essays on themes ranging from empathy and humility to the connection of Thomas Percival to contemporary medical ethics. He collected Chekhov’s doctors’ stories and offered clear and compelling reflections on how to use them in the classroom and was a contributor to Poets on Prozac: Mental Illness, Treatment and the Creative Process. He has also authored a best-selling text on medical interviewing skills.

Publisher

Plain View Press

Place Published

Austin, TX

Edition

2012

Page Count

107