Notes to My Prostate

Notes To My Prostate

written by,John J. Guiney Yallop

Poetry Reading and Chapbook Launch

Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.

The Box of Delights Bookshop

466 Main Street, Wolfville, Nova Scotia

Notes To My Prostate, a poetry chapbook of twenty-five poems written after my diagnosis with prostate cancer, through surgery, and to recovery, is now available from The Box of Delights Bookshop, 466 Main Street, Wolfville, NS B4P 1E2, Phone: 902-542-9511, E-mail: boxofdelights@ns.aliantzinc.ca, Website: www.boxofdelightsbooks.com (Two dollars from the the sale of each chapbook will be donated to prostate cancer reasearch or to a support group for men diagnosed with prostate cancer.)

Dr. John J. Guiney Yallop is a parent, a partner, and a poet. Dr. Guiney Yallop’s research includes poetic inquiry, narrative inquiry, autoethnography, and performative social science. He uses these methodologies to explore identities, communities, and emotional landscapes. This book of poetry is a collection based on his recent experiences with prostate cancer. Dr. Guiney Yallop is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Acadia University.

"Many men diagnosed with prostate cancer will recognize themselves in John J. Guiney Yallop’s Notes To My Prostate. Many men aren’t very good at expressing the feelings John describes; they will find strength in his humorous and emotional lines." – Dick Groot, photographer, and founding member of Eastern Valley Prostate Cancer Support Group

"With a poet's precision, John cuts to the visceral heart of the experience of prostate cancer in poems that resonate with poignant loss, courageous hope, and unwavering love."–Carl Leggo, poet and professor, University of British Columbia

"How do you deal with your own mortality, and with losing a part of yourself that is identified with your gender? John J. Guiney Yallop answers in ways that will surprise you, and with a deft economy of words." – John Oughton, author of Counting Out the Millennium

"In experiencing John's work we are privileged witnesses to his deepest thoughts about life and love, loss and survival and one can only wonder at the things we all hold and may need one day to release and let go. John Guiney Yallop writes notes to his prostate with spare poetic honesty and profound courage "an ocean of meaning" and offers it out to the universe so that we all might learn."
– Cheryl McLean, Publisher, The International Journal of The Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice http://www.ijcaip.com

Two dollars from the price of $9.95 will be donated
to prostate cancer research or to a support group
for men diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Copies available: The Box of Delights Bookshop, 466 Main Street,
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, B4P 1E2.
Phone: 902-542-9511 E-mail: boxofdelights@ns.aliantzinc.ca Online: www.boxofdelightsbooks.com

John Guiney Yallop's work will also be featured in the upcoming book "Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change"

Laurie Block Wins Landsdowne Prize for Poetry, Poems of Middle Age, Mourning and Loss

Artist News

We recently received news that Manitoba poet Laurie Block won the Inaugural Landsdowne Prize for Poetry at the Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards Gala for his collection "Time out of Mind." The book of poetry has also been short listed for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award.

See "Crossing Borders" posts about Laurie Block and Poetry

http://ccahtecrossingborders.blogspot.com/search?q=Laurie+Block

Laurie Block website:

http://www.laurieblock.ca/

Nurse Poets Sought for Magazine Publishing Opportunity

Magazine Seeks Submissions from Nurse Poets

This note forwarded today from CCAHTE liaison, Eastern U.S., Dr. Stephanie Brown Clark, Assistant Professor, Medical Humanities, Centre for Ethics, Humanities and Palliative Care, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

Every issue of RATTLE gathers poems from a specific ethnic, vocational, or social group, comprising a special section of about 20 pages. We're currently seeking submissions from nurse poets for our Winter 2007 issue.

We want...

poems written by nurses -- they don't have to be about nurses. If you're a nurse, submit 3- 5 poems by August 15th, 2007.

We're also seeking ...

essays about the relationship between nursing and/or medicine and poetry -- why are there so many nurse- poets? How does working in this career affect your writing? Does poetry affect how you do your job? If you can write an essay that encompasses both nurses and poetry, we're interested.

Feel free to query first by email
timgreen@rattle.com


For more information on upcoming tributes and special guidelines, see our
call for submissions page http://www.rattle.com/callsforsubs.htm

Medicine, Art and Education/ Narrative Medicine, Poetry in Medical Education Offers a Place for Expression and Healing

Photo C. McLean

Narrative in Education and Practice at McGill Medical School

Maureen Rappaport MD FCCFP is a family doctor who splits her time between working in a busy community practice in Montreal, Quebec and teaching family medicine residents and medical students. She is also a writer of short stories and poetry mainly about caring for older persons and dying patients.

She believes in a balanced medical education that offers a place for the development of the mind as well as the nurturing of soul. "...We (our medical schools) have been criticized for a failure of heart, for lacking in the art of practice. Reading and writing short stories and poetry in a supportive group setting is one way for some students to discover what is in their hearts and to remember why they went into medicine."


Maureen Rappaport offers a creative writing course as an elective to fourth year medical
students at McGill University called "The Poetry of Practice." Students meet for two and a half hours twice a week for four weeks to read, write and discuss medical literature radically different from what is found in medical textbooks, clinical case notes and scientific journals.

She reports, "One cannot watch death and suffering and not be touched, but these feelings are hard to express, hard to articulate and many times impossible to acknowledge as students
run around the hospital not quite sure of what they're supposed to do as student doctors. For those who can access it poetry offers a language to express the inexpressible. ...For those who wrote, shared and listened in this context ..moments of bearing witness became medical acts. "
"The students in the two years I've held this course told me verbally and in written evaluations they found the course healing, a stress relieving activity, meaningful and a way to maintain
a sense of humanity, a way to resolve conflict and disturbing feelings and a wonderful way to bond with classmates and feel less alone about common experiences."

Poetry About Memory, Dementia and Search for Identity, Post from Laurie Block

"The poem, Coming to My Senses, came to me, uncharacteristically, complete and nearly finished during a walk along the banks of the Seine River in Old Saint Boniface, the Franco Manitobain quarter of Winnipeg. It struck me as a "keystone" poem; one upon which the integrity of the entire manuscript depended. I knew immediately that it was either the introductory piece, or as it turned out, the final poem in Time Out Of Mind, a collection that explores memory, dementia and the search for healing and identity."Coming to My Senses stands not as an end but a new beginning, the first steps on the path of a transformation in consciousness. Memory and the sense of self depend on our capacity to honour, preserve and amplify the web of relationships that hold our lives intact. Without memory our connections, to self and to other; to the planet and to our gods, become unsustainable. In turning and returning to our senses we become able to express, kindle and experience love from the moment of birth to our final breath.It was an honour to have "Coming To My Senses" reprinted for a wider audience in the September 2006 edition of the CCAHTE Journal. Now I am thrilled to have my book recognized by my peers in the poetry circle. I'll let you know the results as soon as they are in."
Laurie

More Info about "Time Out of Mind" and Laurie Block
http://www.laurieblock.ca/

photo C. McLean

Read poem "Coming to my Senses" in free September 06 Issue CCAHTE
"The Poetry of Practice"
at http://www.cmclean.com/ archived issues.

Guest Post Sunday April 29, 2007
Laurie Block

Good news. I have been shortlisted for two prizes at the Manitoba
Writing and Publishing Awards annual do. It was an honour to be
considered for the McNally Robinson book of the year and
an absolute thrill to win the inaugural Landsdowne Poetry Prize.

My cup is full.Laurie

Bravo, Laurie! Great to hear this news and congratulations,
Cheryl.

Poems of Middle Age, Mourning, Loss and Dementia

Laurie Block is a poet, playwright, professional storyteller and seasoned performer.

He was born in Winnipeg and lives in Brandon Manitoba. We were pleased to feature Laurie's poem "Coming to my Senses" in our September 06 issue of the CCAHTE Journal.

In the foreword to Laurie's moving, honest and luminous collection of poems,"Time out of Mind" he inscribes the last coherent words his mother said to him,

"I used to be quite fond of you." Shortly after that.. she lost what remained of her senses and sank into the vegetative state in which she spent her last years. Many of these poems are rooted in disorientation, displacement and loss of equilibrium, the friction between what happens outside the skin and what may be taking place on the inside. Laurie Block suggests we value consciousness as somehow more concrete, enduring and linked to assumptions about identity than our bodies. He therefore asks the question. Is the self first a face or a soul?

We are pleased to announce "Time Out of Mind" has recently been shortlisted for The McNally

Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award and the Inaugural Landsdowne Poetry Prize.

You will find Laurie Block's complete poem, "Coming to My Senses"

in your free September archived issue of CCAHTE Journal at http://www.cmclean.com/.

This valuable issue also contains information and full articles about "The Poetry of Practice"

and using poetry in Medical Education. Register free for CCAHTE Journal at ccahte@cmclean.com with an email "please subscribe".

Be sure to join Laurie Block and hear more about the stories of his poetry and his work in an upcoming post. We look forward to welcoming Laurie Block to our CCAHTE Blog Crossing Borders as this week's featured artist "in conversation".