Poems for healing at the hospital

The other day I went to the University of Virginia Medical Center to visit a parishioner. When I checked in at the visitor center, I found a wicker basket sitting on the counter. In the basket were little paper rolls with ribbons around each.

Each roll contained a poem, courtesy of the Jefferson-Madison branch of the public library (which incidentally is just around the corner from St. Paul's). I was told it was "Poetry Day" at the Med Center, and I was invited to take a few rolls to patients. So I did.

What a bright, wonderful gift for people in need of seeing something other than beds, monitors and monotonous television sets.

Poems and healing. I like that.

Here's one of the poems I brought to a patient -- it came with a green ribbon around it, a perfect color for the poem inside. The poem is about baseball and dreams of being fast. Here's the poem:

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The Testing-Tree
By Stanley Kunick


On my way home from school

up tribal Providence Hill

past the Academy ballpark

where I could never hope to play

I scuffed in the drainage ditch

among the sodden seethe of leaves

hunting for perfect stones

rolled out of glacial time

into my pitcher's hand;

then sprinted lickety-

split on my magic Keds

from a crouching start,

scarcely touching the ground

with my flying skin as I poured it on

for the prize of the mastery

over that stretch of road,

with no one no where to deny

when I flung myself down

that on the given course

I was the world's fastest human.