‘Hitting Targets’: a poem from a study of cardiovascular disease prevention

‘Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.’

(Robert Frost, 1874–1963)

Practising care is an emotional business. Healthcare professionals witness and attempt to treat, or relieve, suffering of many kinds.¹ However, many find that there is little space within day-to-day clinical practice to reflect — for emotions to ‘find their thought’ — far less ‘thought to find words’. In fact, this may be actively discouraged.²

Here, we present a short poem that Caroline (first author), a healthcare researcher, created from an interview with Simon (second author), a GP. The poem is constructed entirely from extracts of Simon’s own words taken from an interview carried out as part of a study of cardiovascular disease prevention in general practice.³

The poem spotlights tensions in Simon’s work as he is torn between hitting preventive targets …