Wellsprings

George N. Braman, MD

“Whole capes caked off in slices.

I felt my standpoint shaken

In the universal crisis …”

—“One Step Backward Taken”

Robert Frost

The spinning room, the core that would not hold,

Dry heaves, first hot then cold, the lurching bed,

Nightmare that did this dawning day unfold,

The gyroscope that used to be my head.

I'd lost my equilibrium—what next?—

My vital signs—my pulse, my sight, my breath?

Was this my farewell song without the text?

Was this my exit scene—was this my death?

Restoring semi-circular canals

From currents of a deeper water's flow,

I stemmed the turbulence with calm chorals

From wellsprings that had moved me long ago.

Mortality sensed but spurned, mine to know—

This was my lesson learned, my vertigo.

FULL TEXT

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2002 American College of Physicians