Origin Story
This person is a neurologist of Romanian descent, in practice in the U.S. for 19 years, who draws inspiration from writers in his heritage. In his writing and work, he seeks to create a safe harbor for humanness while navigating the labyrinths of medicine to reach the essence of the humanity of his patients – even if all they want is a diagnosis or cure.
He talked about recently speaking with a patient who experiences migraines: she is seeking the truth, he is seeking the truth to find a way to work with her, wanting to give more than a diagnosis and prognosis. Medicine and science only go so far. How do they stumble on the truth that satisfies both of them? How do poetry and metaphor play a part in healing?
Sophie L. Schott, Listener Poet
Why Poetry Matters in Healthcare: A Neurologist’s Perspective
Featured at Listening Together: Poems from a Year of Conversations 2025
Why Neurologists Write
By Sophie L. Schott, Listener Poet
after Dr. Raphael Campo, “Why Doctors Write”
to get their patients on the same page
to play between the asymmetric sulci
to hold a safe harbor for humanness
in a lifetime of steady schooling
to make sense of the medicine
to record orders, to create order
to pull meaning out of another DNR
in a profession that wipes clean
the white board on the day of
a patient’s death
to pick up threads
to weave through magical thinking
to fill the gap between what is known,
what is true, what is unknowable
they say you write poetry when you
are young, but when you grow old
you become a poet
to become a poet is
to understand the patient
to tune oneself to hear the
poetry snapping
at every human
synapse
