Night Sister

Published: Aug. 24, 2020, 3:52 p.m.

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A friend gave me a collection of Elizabeth Jennings\' poetry recently and it fell open on Night Sister as I was flipping through. First, it made me think of the work I did with the contributors to These Are The Hands (an anthology of poems written by NHS workers). 

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On reading it the final lines of the poem - about someone who has the courage and compassion to sit with us in our distress - really stayed with me. 

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I really enjoy the subtle rhyming - the poem contains 4 verses of 5 lines each. On the middle 3 lines of each verse, the final sounds all rhyme. Tears, fears, appears in verse 2 is my favourite set of rhymes, building the energy through that verse.

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Read the poem (and see a video of another reading) here: http://med.st-andrews.ac.uk/poemsfordoctors/2018/07/05/night-sister/

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