Michael B. Zack

On Writing Poetry

W hat is “best” or “good” in poetry? Although one could present a primer on rhyme, simile, meter, and other didactic attributes of contemporary poetry, such is not the purpose of this new section of CHEST “Pectoriloquy”. In writing good poetry there are many degrees of freedom with respect to these tools of poetic writing. As in the visual arts, theatrical arts, and musical arts, there are numerous ways to achieving “good,” all allowable and all equally respectable. What really matters in poetry (as is also true in medical interventions) is outcome. To continue the metaphor, specific materials and methods matter only as means to the end. Does the experience of reading the poem make a difference, reward the time spent, and create impact? If so, it is good poetry notwithstanding its form, rhythm, lyrical quality, and complexity. I once wrote a semiparody of poetry contests. It speaks to the issue of discovering what distinguishes good from contrived.

Patient coat, doctor coat.

In those hands I see chipped plates, plastic sofa case, dripping taps, the smell of too little tenement light, of urine rained on hapless clothes, a smell her grandson will call stale and will define everything in life he will forever run from. Her sallow hands, atrophic from not holding and not being held, like garaged brush stiffened with last year’s paint; hands that rest, as she finishes, on her coat indifferently stained; this coat with wrinkles of fear and lints of stress, a snow fence retaining winters of faltering bones.

Radiotherapy in chest malignant tumors associated with pulmonary tuberculosis.

Fifteen patients with concomitant tuberculosis and malignant disease received radiation to ports encompassing both the tumor and the tuberculosis in doses ranging from 2,000 to 6,500 rads without activating or spreading the tuberculosis. The tuberculosis remained controlled in all patients covered with antituberculous drugs, regardless of the outcome of the malignant disease.

A Doctor’s Poem: Soft Words Creating Loud Voices

I was drawn to this poem for its unique perspective. The voice in the poem was that of a lung cancer. I accepted it and CHEST published it October 2016. It is reprinted here. Several months later, I received a query from an English news website, Sixth Tone, under the Shanghai, China Media Group. They inquired what I thought the impact of it might be, and had it triggered any discussion amongst our readers?

THE EFFECT OF LATERAL POSITIONS ON GAS EXCHANGE IN PULMONARY DISEASE: A PROSPECTIVE EVALUATION

The effects of body position, supine and right and left lateral decubitus positions, on arterial blood gases were evaluated in 7 hospitalized and 31 ambulatory patients with lung disease. Arterial blood gases were analyzed 15 minutes after a new position was assumed with the subjects breathing room air or various fractions of inspired oxygen (FIO2) to FIO2 = 1.0. Similar studies were performed in 6 normal volunteers, the control group. Significant difference in arterial oxygen tension (PaO2) values between positions were found for patients but not for control subjects. When the arterial blood gases in a given patient were evaluated in relation to the radiographic distribution of disease, it became clear that when disease was predominantly or exclusively confined to one lung or hemithorax, lying on the opposite “healthy” lung resulted in higher PaO2 values (mean: 85 mm Hg) than lying on the “sick” lung (mean: 77 mm Hg). With disease equally distributed (radiographically) to both lung fields, PaO2 values we...