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Eric Dessner

Posts by Eric Dessner

Winter 2026 Poetry Contest (Feb 1st-April 30th): Winner Receives a $100 Dollar Cash Prize.

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We are pleased to announce our Winter 2026 Poetry Contest (Feb 1st – April 30th). The winner will receive a $100 cash prize. The 1st and 2nd runners up will have their poem published on www.medmic.com for 6 months and receive commentary from the contest judges. The winner will also have the option of promoting their work through a video interview on www.medmic.com. Poems can belong to any genre (free form, rhyming, sonnets, haiku, etc) We encourage poets to send poems that relate to wellness or healthcare, but this is not absolutely mandatory. Submissions will be accepted until April 30th, 2026.

Not Looking Away

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Kathy Ray retired in 2024 from 30 years as a PA in the fields of dermatology, cardiology and internal medicine in the Albany, New York area. Patients’ stories often inspired poetry, but it was relegated to sticky notes. Now, words get their due.

Congruity

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The poem is by Mufakir Bhanain, which is a pen name for Drs. Pamela Butler and Fatima Shad (see bio below). Dr. Butler lives in New York City and Dr. Shad lives in Sydney, Australia.

Brief bio: Mufakir Bhanain is the union of two neuroscientists (Drs. Pamela Butler and Fatima Shad), who write poetry together. Mufakir means thinker and Bhanain means sister.

Two Women

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Eric v.d. Luft, Ph.D., was Curator of Historical Collections at SUNY Upstate Medical University from 1987 to 2006 and has taught at Villanova University, Syracuse University, Upstate, and the College of Saint Rose. He is the author, editor, or translator of over 690 publications in philosophy, religion, librarianship, history, history of medicine, politics, humor, popular culture, and nineteenth-century studies.

In the Presence of Shadows

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Manal Imran is a medical student from Miami, FL. Her poem ‘In the Presence of Shadows’ l was inspired by an OB/GYN rotation, where the unexpected loss of a newborn contrasted with the floor’s usual joy

Still at Risk

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by Maryam Tariq, MD

This poem was inspired by a clinical encounter during my Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship. What began as a routine outpatient follow-up revealed, through a single screening question, a recent suicide attempt by a teen who had appeared stable. The piece reflects on the tension between clinical progress and hidden emotional suffering, and the critical importance of asking direct questions ,even when things seem “better.”

Cosmetology

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D. R. James, retired from 40 years of teaching college writing, literature, and peace studies, lives with his wife, a former hospice social worker and bereavement counselor, in Saugatuck, Michigan. His latest of 10 collections is Mobius Trip (Dos Madres Press). https://www.amazon.com/author/drjamesauthorpage