Wow. I just had the most amazing experience with a patient.

[Aristus]

He is one of my patients who refuses to sleep in the shelter. Prefers sleeping rough to spending time at a place that depresses him. So he's always a little rough himself; soiled, tattered, poor hygiene, you get the idea. He came in for a refill of his seizure medication, which I took care of for him.

Then he began to tell me about his recent depression. He always gets depressed around the anniversary of the death of his wife of 17 years. In the past, he has thought about killing himself in order to be with her again. Fortunately, he has a good friend who convinced him that if he committed suicide, he wouldn't go to heaven to be with his wife. Make of that what you will. There are non-believers, believers who view suicide as a mortal sin, and believers who don't. Whatever your view may be, I was just glad this friend had dissuaded him from killing himself.

My patient writes poetry to ease his depression, and console himself on her loss. Today, for the first time, he recited some of it for me. And let me tell you, the man has a gift. Subject matter, meter, rhyme, all of it was impeccable. I filled the purpose of his visit in 5 minutes, then spent the next 15 listening rapt as he recited these astonishing verses. He has one that is about the last two unicorns that would take your breath away.

I felt like I was in a movie; "Homeless man reveals divine gift for poetry and teaches us all a lesson about the value of life." That sort of thing. Make for a fairly standard Hollywood cliche, except it really happened.

I'm still in awe.

This is going in my memoirs someday...

I love this job...

[Sekhmets Daughter]

1. Can you encourage him to commit any of his poetry to paper?

That would be awesome!

[Aristus]

3. I DID!

I said: "Please, will you write these down for me?"

They were amazing. I wonder if I could talk to somebody on a local city arts council to see if he could be published, even if only in the local newspaper published by the homeless community.

[Xyzse]

2. Sounds great

Hopefully he gets published at some point... Sooner rather than later.

[olddots]

4. The saddest thing about homelessness is that we think or are told they are worthless .

This is so far from the truth ,Donald Trump is far from homeless but to me he is worthless because he shows no passion for life ,no art or empathy .
This shouldn't be a Hollywood cliché this is truth our societies are cruel when they don't have to be.

[Aristus]

5. Yeah. I don't allow anyone to disrespect the homeless around me.

Until one has seen the community from the inside, it's impossible to judge accurately.

And you're right, in our hypermaterialistic society, we judge intrinsic worth by monetary worth; not people, by and large, but society.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Good for you, my dear Aristus!

I am so glad (and not one little bit surprised) that you encouraged him this way.

He really needs to get them written down somehow, and printed. I hope you or someone can help him get them submitted for publication.

[Chan790]

7. If you can get up to three of his poems written down and formatted in the next week or so...

there is a fairly-significant regional literary publication in WA state called "River and Sound Review" that publishes poetry...but their reading deadline for the spring for publication is the end of May. Fall reading period is August to November. They pay $25 per poem for publication. It could be a good springboard to recognition though.

http://www.riverandsoundreview.org/Submissions/Submit.htm

[Aristus]

8. Thanks for the link.

This is a fantastic resource!

[sinkingfeeling]

9. You should get him to tape his poetry.

[Aristus]

10. One way or another, I hope he documents them.

I think they would appeal to a broad audience.

[In_The_Wind]

11. ~

[CrazyOrangeCat]

12. K&R

Life is astonishing, some days . . .