House Calls, Rounds, and Healings: A Poetry Casebook

Poetry may not be touted as a cure for disease, but this physician's verses will strengthen your heart and soul. Written during his 20-year career, they offer a world-wide view of medical practice. Beginning with his stint as an orderly at a small country hospital in Wisconsin, the poems follow him through medical school, residency, fellowship, and then practice in West Africa, on a Navajo reservation, and at university and county hospitals. Each poem is actually a case-study of a patient or colleague who has stirred his thoughts.

"I wrote each poem to heal or bless a particular living person or that person's memory. In many cases, these poems were the means of my own therapy. Healing requires both tears and laughter, often in close succession. So we begin to get well." D.L. Shiedermayer, M.D.

These verses, with their sensitivity toward and empathy for those in pain, will haunt your thoughts. Curl up on the sofa, relax, and savor the eloquent and simple love Dr. Shiedermayer expresses for those around him.