In Hospital Residency Poet Finds ‘Lives Worth Knowing’

In Hospital Residency Poet Finds ‘Lives Worth Knowing’

Vermont poet Verandah Porche arrived at Gifford Medical Center this week for a two-week residency. Instead of a medical bag, however, she carried her laptop computer into the hospital.

This residency will include plenty of bedside visits—but it’s not about charts, tests, or diagnoses. It’s about poetry, and taking the time to find "lives worth knowing," say Porche and local organizers of her residency.

In a series of workshops and one-on-one meetings, Porche will work with hospital patients, staff members, and others to help them "shape" what she calls "told poems."

Porche, who has led numerous poetry residencies at Vermont school over the years, is adept at pulling poetry out of people who didn’t know they had any inside. She asks questions; they talk; she types.

"It’s about supporting people while they shape their thoughts," Porche said.

"I’m not asking people to write about their illnesses," Porche stressed. "I’m interested in people’s vision, their authenticity—their curious ways of being themselves."

The result, she hopes, will be a "self-portrait of the hospital through the voices of the people involved."

Porche has three artistic collaborators for this "Lives Worth Knowing" project.

Using the poetry written during Porche’s residency, calligrapher Karen Thorkilsen, photographer Robert Eddy, and graphic designer Julia Pattison will create an exhibit that will be displayed in Randolph later this year.

Community Workshops

Porche will also hold two poetry workshops for the wider community, May 7 and 9, 7:15-8:30 p.m.

The Monday workshop will focus on helping participants create their own poems—"shaking down and sharing their own images," says Porche.

On Wednesday, the poet will share her techniques for helping others to shape their life experiences and stories into "told poems."

To register for one of both of the community workshops, call the hospital at 728-2380.

"Lives Worth Knowing" is funded, in part, by grants from the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Randolph National Bank, and the Vermont Arts Council.

By Sandy Cooch

Poems Worth Reading

Poet Verandah Porche, at Gifford Medical Center for a two-week residency, helped Menig Extended Care resident Viola Gaudette "shape" this personal memory into a poem.

Wild Strawberries

Up in our backyard, we had a great field of them.

We watched to see when they were going to turn.

They come out with little white flowers

all over the yard before they turn into berries.

We’d go out and check how they were coming.

Somewhere in June they got ripe.

We’d get down on our knees

and take a little bucket and pick ‘em.

Some of them come out pretty good size,

and they keep growing.

All over, as far as you could see,

you see red.

Sometimes we’d pick ‘em and take ‘em home

for pies or cake, and sometimes,

I’d take a whole handful,

as much as I could hold in my hand,

and just put ‘em in my mouth

and let ‘em go!

The taste was right there.

Now if I tried to crawl around

and pick ‘em

I’d never get up,

not now.