The Healing Power of Poetry: Dr. Joe Witney

In medicine we write a great deal, yet the language of reports, targets and clinical notes often struggles to reach the places where meaning lives. Poetry can dwell there. It helps us cross the spaces that divide us: between doctor and patient, self and other, loss and repair.

At Sage, we are honoured to share poems like this as small acts of remembering: that care is not only a science but also an art, capable of holding what is too tender or complex for ordinary speech. Such words can help us listen again, to ourselves, to one another and to what it means to heal.

Below, Dr Joe Witney offers a poem that speaks to the courage of showing up, the ache of missed moments and the quiet hope that connection still matters.

Time to share 

Hearts in high 

Hands in deep 

A story to hear 

A life to keep 

Past trauma 

Of another kind 

Fills our room 

Fills our mind 

Addiction, prescription 

Tears and why? 

We try, we say 

We try, we try 

We try to lift 

We try to catch 

We try to share a story 

Snatched 

From us by the time 

And I hear you say

“it’s fine, it’s fine” 

Missed appointment 

Missed the bus 

(Missed again) 

Do you trust 

That we won’t judge 

We’ll know as such; 

Who you are 

That you are us

Dr Joe Witney is a GP based in Hull and member of the Sage Practices Network

How do you use poetry or creative writing to make sense of your work, your relationships or the moments that stay with you? We’d love to hear from you: whether through a few lines, a reflection or a story of where meaning lives for you.

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