‘Jenny’s Daydream’: February’s ‘Art of Nursing’ Disturbs the Quiet

Into the sun by Steve Punter, via Flickr

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

“Stuck to the chair, locked door, locked window, / watching for wrens and sparrows, Jenny closes her eyes.” These lines open “Jenny’s Daydream,”  the poem featured in this month’s Art of Nursing (please click through to the PDF). The daydream is no idyll; though Jenny “remembers sparse blue and yellow flowers” and “herring gulls sunning on the pier, peaceful,” she’s also “waiting for / God’s voice to disturb the interstellar quiet.” Why? The answer, at once harrowing and poignant, might surprise you.

Karen Douglass, a writer and retired RN, has been published in many literary and mainstream magazines, including Sunken Lines, The Other Voices International Project, and Yankee. Her most recent collection is The Great Hunger (Plain View Press, 2009).  Douglass also blogs about writing and life at KD’s Bookblog.

And if you’re a poet or a visual artist, we hope you’ll consider submitting to Art of Nursing. Read this blog post for details. Guidelines can be found here. Still have questions? Write to the Art of Nursing coordinator (me) at sylvia.foley@wolterskluwer.com.