Description
This collection of poems by doctor and acclaimed poet, Glenn Colquhoun, is based on his experiences in medical practice, where doctors are often described or accused of ‘playing God’ but where outward confidence hides a constant battle with uncertainty. Often funny, sometimes serious, always compassionate, the poems explore a range of medical experience that doctors, and anyone who has been in their care, will immediately recognize. Glenn has the ability to find the language that expresses the things we did not even know we were feeling – our helplessness in the face of illness, and our need for hope. Winner in 2004 of the Prize for Modern Letters, the world’s richest prize for emerging authors, the judges wrote: ‘One of the most moving and admirably rich books of poems I’ve read in years.’
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About the author
Glenn Colquhoun was born in South Auckland, New Zealand in 1964. At the age of 18 he began training as a minister but left after two years and never went back. Instead he took an English degree from the University of Auckland and worked as a builder, and in emergency housing before deciding at the age of 26 to become a doctor. Half way through his medical degree he stayed for a year in a small rural Maori Community in Northland, where he learnt Maori and a new appreciation of a unique way of life.This began an ongoing relationship with Maori health, a field he continues to work in to this day. Returning to his studies, he completed his medical degree and now divides his time between caring for patients as a General Practitioner and for his young daughter. He continues to write as much as he can and believes poetry is for everyone, devoting as much time as he possibly can to reading to schools and other audiences, delighting them with his wry, self-deprecating humour and obvious love for his subjects.
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