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Narrative Medicine | Jacinta V. White

A photo of a hand in darkness. It is overlaid with a poem titled "Narrative Medicine" by Jacinta V. White (from "Resurrecting the Bones: Born from a Journey through African American Churches & Cemeteries in the Rural South," Press 53, 2019). The poem reads "I take the stories of you I gather / place them in order / like rare spices on a shelf / names from your birth certificate / the reason recorded of your death / dates I hope match / the dried dirt above / your body / in tiny crevices // of my navel / a stone leaves / the doctors in disarray / I fill in blanks / write my narrative leftover from my great / grandparents / sweet sweat / give me // your hands / that had no time to write // and I will read the lines in your palm see if they say the same as mine / see whose death will come early / and whose will soon after be forgotten / which prescription was written in stone / and which in blood"

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we invite you to use it as a starting point to create your own poem.


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This poem was included in IPM's June 2026 Newsletter.

Access the full Newsletter here.

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