Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Hope

  • Bone headdress

    Susan SampleSalt Lake City, Utah, United States After artwork created by a person with cancer Why tens of bones linkedwith silver chain intoan earthly veil? I gaze at other entries:hand-stitched quiltswith undulating seams. I am accustomedto O’Keeffe’s paintingof the lone cow skull; Ezekiel’s storyof dry, disconnectedbones strewn in a valley until divine breathbinds bone to…

  • Hope

    Rima NasserBeirut, Lebanon “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. This is not an incendiary rant about the politicians and people whose greed and inhumaneness pushed Lebanon into an abyss of ignorance and dereliction. This also is not a tale averring the grandeur of this magical country…

  • Hope quarantined

    Prasad IyerSingapore Poet’s statement This fictional poem expresses the feelings of a migrant separated from his family during the COVID pandemic. Hope quarantined Quarantine forceth divorced soulsDistanced families and broken wholesShards of thoughts, impaling my core Locked down borders’ hearts a sore Shallow slumber, uneasy sense Worries, anxieties common hence.  Weeks and months in the twilight zoneTogether in…

  • Being our best selves: hidden in full view

    James StollerPeter ReaAlan KolpCleveland, Ohio, United States We live in a paradox framed by a tension between age-old wisdom about excellence and our current state. The paradox is this: our behaviors and our priorities are often at odds with age-old truths about how we can be our best selves. This paradox—that these truths are widely…

  • Hope

    Evgeniya LarionovaCharlestown, Massachusetts, United States She, brought in by ambulance, that winter dayThe tiny snowflakes peacefully falling their blind wayBroken, betrayed; Fresh track marks on her arms…“Will I never get saved from doing self-harm?”From the abyss of hell she never felt kindnessShe left AMA… How to end stigma in this crisis? We met again one…