Tag Archives: "University Hospital Boston"

Anti-Vaxxers Ignore the Past

Anti-vaxxers should read 19th century novels, which describe high mortality rates

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R.I.P. Mary Oliver, Bride of Amazement

Friday Mary Oliver, who died yesterday, may have been America’s favorite poet. I taught her Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive for over 20 years in a nature-focused Introduction to Literature class and so have seen up close her impact on readers. When death has entered my own life, I have often turned to Oliver’s poetry. For […]

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Clean Rooms, Despair of the Mind

Mary Oliver’s “University Hospital, Boston” captures my experience of having a friend in a hospital. Oliver understands the various ironies involved.

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My Father in the Hospital

A Mary Oliver poems captures my fears about my father, currently hospitalized.

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A Place of Parched and Broken Trees

My friend Alan Paskow is finally dying. The poem that comes to mind is Mary Oliver’s “Universal Hospital, Boston.” All around nature is thriving, a contrast with the clean antiseptic rooms within the hospital. The contrast shows up as well in the patient’s eyes, which “are sometimes green and sometimes gray,/and sometimes full of humor, but often not.”

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