Medical art …

… Measuring the Comforts of Rafael Campo. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Campo begins in a way I would have recommended against, but he pulls it off. His introductory essay, “Illness as Muse,” makes it clear that he finds himself “drawn to write about illness.” Although he candidly identifies the risks of such writing, those risks do not alter his ambitions:

Illness is, after all, one of the few truly universal human experiences; to write in response to it necessarily demands active participation, not the kind of objective, soulless distancing so many doctors practice, and teach their trainees to practice.

By the end of the essay one understands that this poet-physician believes his profession and art are closely related vocations.