the strongest creature

The Good Listening Project - Elle Klassen - the strongest creature is the phoenix poem.JPG

Being in healthcare can be extremely rewarding, but it comes with the occupational hazard of loss.

This woman loved the work she did with dementia patients and the connections she was able to form with them.

However, she also struggled with the frequent loss of people she had bonded with. She was learning to deal with this process within herself more easily so that she could best serve the people she interacted with.

Listener Poet Beck Klassen

Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital

July 2018

is the phoenix

who surrounds herself

with mortal companions

whose world she is

whimsical enough to enter

and selfless enough to embrace

for each time

one leaves her

she burns

she rises

still weeping

from the ashes

and when the others talk

about the phoenix

they forget to say that

each time she rises

she is stronger

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