Auscultation

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Spring and All Poem XVI by William Carlos Williams with reflection on signs of illness, jaundice, liver failure, onomatopoeia and poetic apostrophe.

 Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Spring and All, Poem XVI
By William Carlos Williams

O tongue
licking
the sore on
her netherlip

O toppled belly

O passionate cotton
stuck with
matted hair

elysian slobber
from her mouth
upon
the folded handkerchief

I can’t die

--moaned the old
jaundiced woman
rolling her
saffron eyeballs

I can’t die
I can’t die

References:

Spring and All:
https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/0881/Spring%2520and%2520All-WCW.pdf 
or
https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9781513283029 

William Carlos Williams: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-carlos-williams  

Poetic Apostrophe: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/apostrophe-literary-device-meaning 

Baughn RE, Musher DM. Secondary syphilitic lesions. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2005 Jan;18(1):205-16.

Health Quality Ontario. In-home care for optimizing chronic disease management in the community: an evidence-based analysis. Ont Health Technol Assess Ser. 2013 Sep 1;13(5):1-65. 

NB Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore

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Description: 
An immersive reading of A Field of Trilliums by Lori-Anne Noyahr first published in Ars Medica in 2023 with reflection on brain death, anesthesia, liminality and sounds. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:
Noyahr, L.-A. (2023). A Field of Trilliums. Ars Medica, 17(2), 3 pp. Retrieved from https://ars-medica.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2131 

References:

De Georgia MA. History of brain death as death: 1968 to the present. J Crit Care. 2014 Aug;29(4):673-8.

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Sippokni Sia by Winnie Lewis Gravitt with reflection on the Choctaw Indian Tribe, code switching, aging and the grandmother effect.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Sippokni Sia
Winnie Lewis Gravitt

I am old, Sippokni sia.
Before my eyes run many years,
Like panting runners in a race.
Like a weary runner, the years lag;
Eyes grow dim, blind with wood smoke;
A handkerchief binds my head,
For I am old. Sippokni sia.

Hands, once quick to weave and spin;
Strong to fan the tanchi;
Fingers patient to shape dirt bowls;
Loving to sew hunting shirt;
Now, like oak twigs twisted.
I sit and rock my grandson.
I am old. Sippokni sia.

Feet swift as wind o’er young cane shoots;
Like stirring leaves in ta falla dance;
Slim like rabbits in leather shoes;
Now moves like winter snows,
Like melting snows on the Cavanaugh.
In the door I sit, my feet in spring water.
I am old. Sippokni sia.

Black like crow’s feather, my hair.
Long and straight like hanging rope;
My people proud and young.
Now like hickory ashes in my hair,
Like ashes of old camp fire in rain.
Much civilization bow my people;
Sorrow, grief and trouble sit like blackbirds on fence.
I am old. Sippokni sia hoke.

References:

Winnie Lewis Gravitt: https://poets.org/poet/winnie-lewis-gravitt  

https://dictionary.choctawnation.com/word/

Coall DA, Hertwig R. Grandparental investment: past, present, and future. Behav Brain Sci. 2010 Feb;33(1):1-19; discussion 19-40.

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Description: 
An immersive reading of King Lear by William Shakespeare with reflection on dementia, storms and caregivers.  

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:

King Lear by William Shakespeare  Act 3 Scene 1 lines 1-20

KENT  Who’s there, besides foul weather?

GENTLEMAN One minded like the weather, most unquietly.

KENT  I know you. Where’s the King?

GENTLEMAN 

Contending with the fretful elements;

Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea

Or swell the curlèd waters ’bove the main,

That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,

Which the impetuous blasts with eyeless rage

Catch in their fury and make nothing of;

Strives in his little world of man to outscorn

The to-and-fro conflicting wind and rain.

This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,

The lion and the belly-pinchèd wolf

Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs

And bids what will take all.

KENT  But who is with him?

GENTLEMAN 

None but the Fool, who labors to outjest

His heart-struck injuries.


References:

King Lear (electronic): https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/king-lear/read/ 

King Lear (print): https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9781501118111 

NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore

 Ottilingam S. The psychiatry of King Lear. Indian J Psychiatry. 2007 Jan;49(1):52-5.

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An immersive reading of excerpts from Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag with reflection on cancer, tuberculosis, metaphors and myths. 

References:

Illness as Metaphor:  https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780312420130 

NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore 

Curran J. Illness as Metaphor; AIDS and its Metaphors. BMJ. 2007 Sep 8;335(7618):517.

Clow B. Who's afraid of Susan Sontag? Or, the myths and metaphors of cancer reconsidered. Soc Hist Med. 2001 Aug;14(2):293-312.

Oransky I. Susan Sontag. Lancet. 2005 Feb 5-11;365(9458):468. 

Diniz G, Korkes L, Tristão LS, Pelegrini R, Bellodi PL, Bernardo WM. The effects of gratitude interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Einstein (Sao Paulo). 2023 Aug 11;21:eRW0371.

Boggiss AL, Consedine NS, Brenton-Peters JM, Hofman PL, Serlachius AS. A systematic review of gratitude interventions: Effects on physical health and health behaviors. J Psychosom Res. 2020 Aug;135:110165. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110165.

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Description: 
An immersive viewing of Calavera Catrina by Jose Guadalupe Posada with reflection on skeletons, Halloween and the Day of the Dead. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
 https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/47687

References:

Miller ME Taube KA. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya : An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. New York: Thames and Hudson; 1993. 

https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780500279281 

Posada’s Mexico edited by Ron Tyler

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173023529665&view=1up&seq=11 

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Description: 
An immersive reading of Sassafras Tea by Effie Lee Newsome with reflection on tea rituals, herbal remedies, the good and hindsight. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Sassafras Tea
By Effie Lee Newsome

The sass’fras tea is red and clear
 In my white china cup,
 So pretty I keep peeping in
 Before I drink it up.

I stir it with a silver spoon,
 And sometimes I just hold
 A little tea inside the spoon,
 Like it was lined with gold.

It makes me hungry just to smell
 The nice hot sass’fras tea,
 And that’s the one thing I really like
 That they say’s good for me.

References:

Effie Lee Newsome: https://poets.org/poet/effie-lee-newsome  

Sassafras Tea: https://poets.org/poem/sassafras-tea 

Caroling Dusk: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1136&context=zeabook 

Noé, J. (2002). Chapter 10 Ethnomedicine of the cherokee: Historical and current applications. In Advances in Phytomedicine (Vol. 1, pp. 125-131). Elsevier B.V.

Elizabeth A. Hausner, Robert H. Poppenga.  Editor(s): Michael E. Peterson, Patricia A. Talcott, (2013) Chapter 26 Hazards Associated with the Use of Herbal and Other Natural Products. In Small Animal Toxicology (Third Edition, pp 335-356) W.B. Saunders,

Sloan Kettering: https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/sassafras

Hilton L, Hempel S, Ewing BA, Apaydin E, Xenakis L, Newberry S, Colaiaco B, Maher AR, Shanman RM, Sorbero ME, Maglione MA. Mindfulness Meditation for Chronic Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Ann Behav Med. 2017 Apr;51(2):199-213. 

Rusch HL, Rosario M, Levison LM, Olivera A, Livingston WS, Wu T, Gill JM. The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2019 Jun;1445(1):5-16.

Black DS, Slavich GM. Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2016 Jun;1373(1):13-24.

Charlton A. Medicinal uses of tobacco in history. J R Soc Med. 2004 Jun;97(6):292-6.

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Description:
An immersive reading of Gitanjali 8 by Rabindranath Tagore with reflection on healthful dust, allergies, shared decision making, white coats and scrubs. 

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Gitanjali 8 by Rabindranath Tagore

The child who is decked with prince’s robes and who has jewelled chains round his neck loses all pleasure in his play; his dress hampers him at every step.

In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust he keeps himself from the world, and is afraid even to move.

Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life.

References: 

Gitanjali https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7164/pg7164-images.html  

Rabindranath Tagore https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rabindranath-tagore  

Blumenthal-Barby J, Opel DJ, Dickert NW, Kramer DB, Tucker Edmonds B, Ladin K, Peek ME, Peppercorn J, Tilburt J. Potential Unintended Consequences Of Recent Shared Decision Making Policy Initiatives. Health Aff (Millwood). 2019 Nov;38(11):1876-1881.

Lambrecht, B., Hammad, H. The immunology of the allergy epidemic and the hygiene hypothesis. Nat Immunol 18, 1076–1083 (2017).

Pfefferle PI, Keber CU, Cohen RM, Garn H. The Hygiene Hypothesis - Learning From but Not Living in the Past. Front Immunol. 2021 Mar 16;12:635935.

Haahtela T. A biodiversity hypothesis. Allergy. 2019 Aug;74(8):1445-1456.

O'Donnell VR, Chinelatto LA, Rodrigues C, Hojaij FC. A brief history of medical uniforms: from ancient history to the COVID-19 time. Rev Col Bras Cir. 2020 Jun 8;47:e20202597.

Sood, S. (2023, July 10). Fashion-based medicine: A history of western doctors’ dress - hektoen internationalShefali Sood. Hektoen International - An online medical humanities journal. https://hekint.org/2023/07/10/fashion-based-medicine-a-history-of-western-doctors-dress/

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Description: 

An immersive reading of an excerpt from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott with reflection on symptoms and treatments for the common cold and the clinician patient relationship. 

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:

 excerpt from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott  

Two nights ago I showed up to teach my class with a raw chest and a raging sore throat, that kind that feels like cancer of the trachea. I happen to have two doctors in this class, and one of them tried to assure me that it probably wasn't tracheal cancer, that in fact the viral cloud of mid-autumn had descended and many people were having similar symptoms. The other doctor recommended drinking really, really hot water. "Hot water?" I said. "Hot water? I should be home hooked up to an epidural, drinking codeine cough syrup, and you're prescribing hot water?" Then I threatened to lower his grade. (Of course, this is not a graded workshop, so my students tend to roll their eyes when I threaten them.) At the break, that doctor brought me a cup of boiling water, as though for tea but without the tea bag, and I drank it. My throat and chest stopped aching about twenty seconds later. 

I hate that. 

References:

Bird by Bird: https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780385480017 

https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/otc-pharmaceuticals/cold-cough-remedies/united-states 

Earn DJ, Andrews PW, Bolker BM. Population-level effects of suppressing fever. Proc Biol Sci. 2014 Jan 22;281(1778):20132570.

Jaume F, Valls-Mateus M, Mullol J. Common Cold and Acute Rhinosinusitis: Up-to-Date Management in 2020. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2020 Jun 3;20(7):28.

Spector SL. The common cold: current therapy and natural history. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1995 May;95(5 Pt 2):1133-8.

NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore 

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Description:
An immersive reading of an untitled poem by King Nezahualcoyotl translated by Daniel Brinton with reflection on Nahuatl poetry, memento mori, and flowers.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:

 Excerpts from an untitled poem by King Nezahualcoyotl translated by Daniel Brinton

1. The fleeting pomps of the world are like the green willow trees, which, aspiring to permanence, are consumed by a fire, fall before the axe, are upturned by the wind, or are scarred and saddened by age.

2. The grandeurs of life are like the flowers in color and in fate. […]

3. The delicious realms of flowers count their dynasties by short periods; those which in the morning revel proudly in beauty and strength, by evening weep for the sad destruction of their thrones, and for the mishaps which drive them to loss, to poverty, to death and to the grave. All things of earth have an end.  […]

4. […] nothing is so perfect that it does not fall and disappear. […]

5. The caverns of earth are filled with pestilential dust which once was the bones, the flesh, the bodies of great ones who sate upon thrones […]

6. […] Were I to introduce you into the obscure bowels of this temple, and were to ask you which of these bones were those of the powerful Achalchiuhtlanextin, first chief of the ancient Toltecs; […] if I continued thus questioning about all our august ancestors, what would you reply? The same that I reply—I know not, I know not; for first and last are confounded in the common clay. What was their fate shall be ours, and of all who follow us.

7. Unconquered princes, warlike chieftains, let us seek, let us sigh for the heaven, for there all is eternal, and nothing is corruptible. The darkness of the sepulchre is but the strengthening couch for the glorious sun, and the obscurity of the night but serves to reveal the brilliancy of the stars. 

References:

Poem: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12219/12219-h/12219-h.htm#S_10 

Miller ME Taube KA. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya : An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. New York: Thames and Hudson; 1993.  https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780500279281 

Noonan E, Little M, Kerridge I. Return of the memento mori: imaging death in public health. J R Soc Med. 2013 Dec;106(12):475-7. doi: 10.1177/0141076813495828. Epub 2013 Sep 11. PMID: 24025227; PMCID: PMC3842855.

Mexica vs Aztec https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/home/you-are-no-longer-called-aztecs-you-are-mexica 

NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore