"Cardiology" by Rafael Campo

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( March 8, 2018 [Cardiology]( [Rafael Campo]( When we first met, my heart pounded. They said the shock of it was probably what broke his heart. In search of peace, we traveled once to Finland, tasted reindeer heart. It seemed so heartless, how you wanted it to end. I noticed on the nurse who took his pulse a heart tattooed above her collarbone. The kids played hearts all night to pass the time. You said that at its heart rejection was impossible to understand. “We send our heartfelt sympathy,” was written in the card your mother sent, in flowing script. I tried interpreting his EKG, which looked like knife wounds to the heart. I knew enough to guess he wouldn’t last much longer. As if we’d learned our lines by heart, you said, “I can’t explain.” “Please don’t,” was my reply. They say the heart is just a muscle. Or the heart is where the human soul resides. I saw myself in you; you looked so much like him. You didn’t have the heart to say you didn’t want me anymore. I still can see that plastic statue: Jesus Christ, his sacred heart aflame, held out in his own hands. He finally let go. How grief this great is borne, not felt. Borne in the heart. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2018 Rafael Campo. Used with permission of the author. [Rafael Campo reads "Cardiology."]( About This Poem “‘Cardiology’ juxtaposes and contrasts the myriad ways we think about the heart—clinically, emotionally, spiritually. As a physician who writes poetry, I’ve long been fascinated by how the complex machinery of the physical body accommodates and expresses who we are as human beings who are more than our flesh and blood. I hope the poem enacts the empathy we localize in our hearts when we confront suffering.” —Rafael Campo [Rafael Campo]( Rafael Campo’s new poetry collection, Comfort Measures Only: New and Selected Poems, 1994–2016, is forthcoming from Duke University Press in fall 2018. He practices and teaches medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he also leads reflective writing workshops for medical students, hospital staff, and patients. Photo credit: Sara Barrett [more-at-poets]( [Alternative Medicine]( Poetry by Campo [Alternative Medicine]( (Duke University Press, 2013) "Echolocation" by Sally Bliumis-Dunn [read-more]( "Grief Work" by Natalie Diaz [read-more]( "Endangered Species" by Dan Beachy-Quick [read-more]( March Guest Editor: Meghan O’Rourke Thanks to Meghan O’Rourke, author of Sun in Days (W. W. Norton, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about [O’Rourke]( and our other [guest editors for the year.]( Help Support Poem-a-Day If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a [monthly donation]( or [one-time gift]( to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today’s poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038