Description: How does a young boy, growing up in rural Nebraska, decide to become a cardiologist? What drew him and kept him on his journey to practice medicine at a young age, encounter death, and deal with professors--and later patients--who are, each of them, characters, whether challenging or easy to enjoy? How does the sensitive boy react as a physician when things go wrong or family and work lives seem to be in conflict? Too, this doctor is a man of faith; both the scientifically and the spiritually committed will wonder how he squares these worlds. How does it feel to give bad news--sometimes to a patient you have cared for over decades, when ""caring"" is no euphemism? This physician-author shares his deepest responses to his complex life, whose high stakes each of us shares, as he looks back at his life in this second collection of narrative poems that resonate with health care workers and lay persons alike.
Brief description: Joseph Gascho is a retired cardiologist and emeritus professor of humanities and medicine at Penn State University College of Medicine. He is the author of a book of poetry, Cornfields, Cottonwoods, Seagulls and Sermons: Growing Up in Nebraska. He was recipient of the Annals of Internal Medicine best poem of the year in 2014 and has had numerous commended poems in the international Hippocrates Poetry and Medicine annual poetry competitions.
Review Quotes: "Gascho's terse, understated, yet compelling poems often resist easy resolution--revealing that for all his hard-won knowledge, experience, and compassion, his work as a cardiologist often requires uncertain choices that may mean life or death for his patients. With candor, humor, modesty, and just enough medical terminology, Gascho offers moving glimpses of the heartaches and rewards of such vast responsibility. This book may well change the way you view doctors--for the better."
--Jeff Gundy, Bluffton University
"These are lovely poems that capture the real world of medicine and give us 'the joy of medicine' with beautiful imagery and heart sounds. Science and art are perfectly blended in these poems that speak to our senses with a resonance that reminds us of other physician-poets, John Stone and William Carlos Williams. This is a poetry collection to savor, to read again and again."
--Ron Domen, MD, author of Plaintive Music
"In spare but elegant language, Gascho provides readers with a glimpse into the personal and professional life of a cardiologist. He shares moments when he asks himself 'how to tell a woman she has six months to live' . . . and 'dreams of a heart attack he missed.' A helpful glossary of medical terms makes this an engaging and cohesive read for both medical and lay audiences."
--Cheryl Dellasega, Penn State College of Medicine
"Joseph Gascho writes with the mind of a scientist and the soul of a poet. In this second collection of poems, Gascho offers us snapshots of what it means to dream of, train for, practice, and fine-tune being a doctor. Heart and Soul lays bare questions, both clinical and existential, that mark his evolution as physician. Here, we journey alongside a remarkable man of personal humility, exacting self-reflection, and bold, creative spirit."
--Kimberly R. Myers, Penn State College of Medicine