Poems from a Year of Conversations
Celebrating the Voices of Our 2025 Publications
Tuesday, October 21 | 7 pm - 8:15 pm ET | Zoom
Thank you for joining us for this celebration of poetry and listening.
If you’d like to explore more from today’s featured anthologies, you can purchase copies below. Your purchase helps sustain our mission to humanize healthcare through the healing power of poetry and compassionate presence.
If you feel moved to support our work further, you’ll also find an option to make a donation here.
Stay connected with us—through future readings, new anthologies, and opportunities to be part of this growing listening community. You can follow along through our newsletter and social media.
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A Note from the Host
We say that the heart of our work are our Listener Poets, who hold one-on-one listening sessions where individuals can share what’s on their minds and hearts. Each conversation becomes a custom poem—a reflection of that person’s story, emotions, and experience.
Each year, we gather these poems into anthologies created through partnerships with hospitals, healthcare organizations, and conferences. These collections are designed to strengthen cultures of listening, support reflection, and honor the voices of those working and healing in healthcare spaces. This past year, we published six new anthologies—each one a mosaic of voices and experiences. Each poem holds a story, and together they reflect the incredible diversity of human experience.
What you’ll read here are some of the voices, stories, and insights that emerged from the Listener Poets’ offer of presence. Each poem is both a gift to the person it was written for and a reflection of what becomes possible when we slow down and truly listen.
Ravenna Raven
Listener Poet & Education and Publications Lead
Featured Poems
“We Shall Know Her Name”
by Sibihan Lawrence, Listener Poet
Say Her Name: Honoring Henrietta Lacks’ Legacy and Impact on Medicine and Research Ethics
“Where Do the Children Play?”
by Gray Davidson Carroll, Listener Poet
Our Why: Stories from the American Cancer Society’s Patient Support Team
“No Words Exist (Why They’re Afraid of Us)”
by Julia McDonald, Listener Poet
HYSTERIOGRAPHY: Poems about Uteruses, Menstruation, Pregnancy, Abortion, Loss, and Childbirth
“I Am Stuck on a Wheel That Keeps Turning”
by Leigh Finnegan-Hosey, Listener Poet
“Why Neurologists Write”
by Sophie Schott, Listener Poet
Why Poetry Matters in Healthcare: A Neurologist’s Perspective
Meet the Listener Poets
Meet the Host
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