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

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.

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2016-11-21T13:19:17-05:00February 17th, 2010|nursing perspective, patient engagement|2 Comments
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Psychodrama, and Dreams: Art of Nursing’s December Poet

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

“Wife two weeps, leaves a trail of tissues, // stamps her foot, cries no one loves her,“ reports the narrator of “Psychodrama Session.”  The poem, featured in this month’s Art of Nursing, offers a vivid look at what might happen when a man in psychotherapy talks about his past; read it here.  (You’ll need to click again on “Article as PDF.”)  Though her characters are imagined, writer Joan Mazza knows the world she’s writing about. She is a licensed psychotherapist and certified sex therapist as well as a speaker and writing coach.

Mazza has been published in numerous literary and mainstream magazines, from The MacGuffin and The Hudson Review to Writer’s Digest and, yes, Playgirl. She has also written several books on the uses of dreams, including Dream Back Your Life: A Practical Guide to Dreams, Daydreams, and Fantasies (Perigree Trade, 2000), described as a dream-based approach to self-improvement. For more information, visit her Web site.

And if you’re a poet or a visual artist, please consider submitting to Art of Nursing. Read this blog post for details. Guidelines can be found here; and if you still have questions, feel free to write to the Art of Nursing coordinator (me) at sylvia.foley@wolterskluwer.com.

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2016-11-21T13:20:33-05:00December 17th, 2009|Nursing|1 Comment
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October Poem: An Emergency Nurse’s “Purgatory”—and Sanctuary

Purgatory_screenshot.partial4In  “Purgatory,” poet and ED nurse Stacy R. Nigliazzo writes about the sick and the stranded as they wait their turns at a hospital Emergency entrance—and the “nurse behind the bulletproof glass” who summons each in turn, her raw voice “calling sanctuary.” Read the poem here; listen to the poet’s reading here.

If this piques your curiosity, take a look at previous issues (Art of Nursing is always free; you might need to access page 2 or 3 of an issue’s table of contents to find it). To hear more poems read by their authors, click here. Interested in submitting your own work to Art of Nursing? Read this blog post for details. Guidelines can be found here; and if you still have questions, feel free to write to the Art of Nursing coordinator (me) at sylvia.foley@wolterskluwer.com.

Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

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2016-11-21T13:21:45-05:00October 14th, 2009|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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