
“Poetry catches the moments I see as rich in meaning.” That’s the view of a local health Trust’s very own Nurse-Poet. Who is included in a charity publication of poems celebrating the NHS.
Entitled ‘These are the hands’, the collection is written by NHS staff and some of the county’s leading writers.
These are the hands video
This is a book that has just been launched on Friday and its Poems in the Heart of the NHS.
Just going to read the first poem ‘These are the hands’ by Michael Rosen.
These are the hands
For the 60th anniversary of the NHS.
These are the hands
That touch us first
Feel your head
Find the pulse
And make your bed.
These are the hands
That tap your back
Test the skin
Hold your arm
Wheel the bin
Change the bulb
Fix the drip
Pour the jug
Replace your hip.
These are the hands
That fill the bath
Mop the floor
Flick the switch
Sooth the sore
Burn the swabs
Give us a jab
Throw out sharps
Design the lab
And these are the hands
That stop the leaks
Empty the pan
Wipe the pipes
Carry the can
Clamp the veins
Make the cast
Log the dose
And touch us last.
So my name is Mel mcEvoy, i’m a nurse consultant in the Trust and I have three poems in this anthology.
The book is available from www.fairacrepress.co.uk
Mel McEvoy, a Nursing Consultant in Palliative Care at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, has three poems included: ‘He swims in the silence’, ‘Do your own dead come for you?’ and ‘Living in an empty house’.
Proceeds from ‘These are the hands’ will be donated to tackle the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Nurse-poet Mel shares his thoughts
Mel said: “I’m very proud to have my poems included. It’s a book about the NHS where I have spent most of my working life. And it’s all for charity which is fantastic.
“The book shows the altruism of the NHS staff and touches on the many times they go beyond themselves to care. They’re drawn to, and have a desire to, do the right thing for the patient and society in general. The NHS is an important piece of the fabric that holds this nation together.
“I try to catch that my poems.”
‘These are the hands’ begins with an introduction poem by former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the NHS. He has a famous fan in actor and writer Stephen Fry who provides a cover quote of: “‘A wonderful anthology to celebrate the NHS, which is itself the best poem a country has ever written.”
Mel has a long interest in poetry, finding a great personal satisfaction in aiming to create writing that perfectly encompasses the elements he sees as vital to creating a successful poem: the poetic form, the imagery, the sound and the meaning of the words.
Mel commented: “Working in end of life care has been a privilege and has had a profound effect on my life.
“I’ve been with people as they come to accept their oncoming death. I’ve seen how it affects them and how sometimes from that knowledge comes enormous strength.
“My poems may seem like they centre around end-of-life, but really they are about life. They explore the past, where people come from, their experiences and have been described as a ‘narrative of emotion’.”
Previous poetry works
Mel, who has a previous collection of poems called “An Emptied Space” published by Mudfog Press, lists Seamus Heaney and Charles Bukowski as two of his principal influences.
He recently completed a Master’s degree in Creative Writing with Distinction. His final project was a collection of poems centred around the lift at the University Hospital of North Tees. Along with the people whose life stories are captured while traveling up and down to the wards. In an unusual twist, the lift itself is a sentient being and tells a fragment of the professionals’ life. Mel hopes this collection will soon become his second published work.
Published by Fair Acre Press, ‘These are the hands’ costs £9.99 and is available online. All proceeds will be donated to the NHS Charities Together Fund COVID-19 Emergency Fund.