/ Center for Community and Global Health/ Listen to This: A Poem

Listen to This: A Poem

You don’t have to be ready,
but you can be loved…

A poem spoken into collective being by Narrative Scribes at Lewis & Clark College, February 11, 2023 and scribed by Alexis Rehrmann.

November 14, 2023

Listen to This

You don’t have to be ready,

but you can be loved.

What about the grey? I like

stories, listen to this

We are not alone. Listening is

connection with others

silence is an acceptable

response. Make me feel

heard—

Stories have power. Listening is

Caring, listen to this:

be still for a moment

We can always try again

notice emotion, there’s no rush, please

please listen

Joining together touching each

other, I appreciate

this time, my eyes are open

This is rhythmic. Our bodies

are our homes. Observe

take a deep breath

I can see you. When you listen

to someone’s story your

heartbeats sync up

affiliate freely. If you need anything, I’m here

my neural synapses co-regulate with your neural synapses

(it’s ok to not know)

we are all in different places, listen to this

we are all human, change is constant,

you can tell your story, again

stories empower observe the unseen

becoming undone listen to promote

_____ [unheard]

tomorrow is a new day—what comes next?

It’s okay to feel uncomfortable

Listen to this!

Collaborative effervescing is how we rumble.

Take your time listening is care

Our stories matter

–Spoken into collective being by Narrative Scribes at Lewis & Clark College, February 11, 2023, scribed by Alexis Rehrmann.

About the Program

Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative created Narrative Scribe Training, a curriculum which builds on the narrative medicine practices of listening and witnessing.

Funded by a four-year grant from the Mellon Foundation, and housed at the Center for Community and Global Health, Narrative Scribe Training is part of the college’s community-based Healing Social Suffering through Narrative program and will be offered annually through 2025.

This poem was created in real-time as the final exercise in listening together.

Immersive Learning

How Migrant Stories Are Told

A new course, Playing at the Border: Migration and Art, examines how migrant and refugee stories are told in film, theatre, and visual art, providing students with opportunities to engage directly with Portland’s immigrant communities.

Come to Narrative Medicine Skills Training!

With support from the Mellon Foundation, Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative (NWNMC) is developing Narrative Medicine Skills Training.

Narrative Medicine Skills Training introduces the narrative medicine principles of attention, representation, and affiliation and develops participant skills of listening and witnessing. We will reflect on how listening and witnessing can be applied to stories of health, illness and healing in diverse healthcare settings to improve care and support healing.

Training is open to students, health professionals, faculty, staff and community members– anyone curious about the practice of narrative medicine.

Narrative Medicine Skills Training

Saturday, February, 22
8:45-3:30

in-person and on-campus
Smith Hall
Lewis & Clark College

Register Here

Health Coverage: How Potential Providence Strike Impacts Patients

Carolyn Zook, Associate Director at the L&C Center for Community and Global Health is featured in this KGW8 story on the possibility of healthcare strikes in Oregon. She shares her expertise alongside L&C Law School Prof. Keith Cunningham-Parmeter

WATCH HERE

Experiential Learning

Health + Humanities Internships = Impact

The Center for Community and Global Health offers funding for health and humanities internships with Portland-area partners. Whether over the summer or during the school year, L&C students benefit from paid internships that turn career exploration into action.