FIRST, DO NO HARM

In Robert Fagles’ translation of Vergil, Aeneas,

contemplating the Trojan War cries out, "The

world is a world of tears, and the burdens of

mortality to touch the heart."

Laura Brylawski-Miller intuits the lacrimae

rerum, the tears in things throughout her poetry,
and it is not only a result of the classic education

she received in her native Italy, but a

guiding insight that directs her view of the world,
the shape of her soul. Like the Buddha of

Sokkuram, she is stunned by the suffering she

sees in the world and is left with the only possible

response, compassion for the human condition.

Compassion in her, however, is not naiveté. This

intuition is perhaps what first led her to medicine,
the sensitivity for the pain of others, the need to

heal, even when that healing process means

debriding dead tissue with her poetic scalpel.

"First, do no harm," the Hippocratic oath

demands, but sometimes it requires severe

measures as every surgeon knows.

Product details

• Authors: Laura Brylawski-Miller
• Publisher: Poets Choice Publishing
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.04.2017
• EAN: 9780997262957
• ISBN: 978-0-9972629-5-7
• No. of pages: 162
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 9 mm
• Weight: 245 g
• Subject: Fiction > Poetry, drama