Narrative Medicine for Patients

Resources to Inspire Writing:

Pongo Poetry Project

The Imagine Project


Poets writing on illness, life and death:

Emily Dickinson

Silvia Plath

Dylan Thomas

Do Not Go Gentle

Death Shall Have no Dominion


Good Reads:

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

By Jean-Dominique Baby

The story of a man who suffers a massive stroke resulting in locked in syndrome. Unable to move any muscle consciously except for the one eyelid, he tells his own story by blinking his eye.

Intoxicated by My Illness

By Anatole Broyard

An example of a patient who defeats death by telling his own story.

A Whole New Life

By Reynolds Price

A story of what the patient experience can be like by an articulate patient who has high expectations for the way in which he should be treated.

How to love the world: Poems of gratitude and hope

By James Crews

The book offers readers uplifting, deeply felt, and relatable poems by well-known poets from all walks of life and all parts of the US. The author offers writing and reflection prompts as well as reading group questions and topics for discussion as well.