I’m delighted to launch Season 4 of Poems for Doctors online. For this season I’ve been out and about, filming readers from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, and Aberdeen. I hope that, over the next few weeks, you’ll enjoy listening to them as much as I have meeting them! The first reading is from one of the new authors included the new third edition of ‘Tools of the Trade’, Glasgow based poet Nuala Watt. (@steveDsmart)

This poem is part of the Poems for doctors project. You can find out more about the project here.

Season 4 : poem 1

Poet Dr Nuala Watt reads her own poem The Eye Chart

The Eye Chart

Nuala Watt

T

H   E

E Y E

C H A R T

I scowl towards his voice. He says the map
marks how far vision goes. If I could creep

up close I’d learn the journey. His technique
restricts me to a chair so he can track

how far I travel down the chart alone
before I pause. I grope in the third line –

my limit the next shape I recognize –
then stop. No way. I still believe my eyes

can hold a solar system, catch all the lights,
deliver to the doctor alphabets

as small as atoms. But this world is smudge.
I’m huddled at the bottom of the page,

trying to hide my dark. Wherever I am,
I’ve bypassed every symbol I can name

and stumble at my vision’s borders
where letters are illegible as stars.

Rights: by permission of the author

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To ask to join, or add to the discussion if you are already a member, please visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/poemsfordoctors/