Poet Healer

If my health would bear it, I could write a Poem which I have in my head, which would be a consolation for people in such situation as mine.

Keats, The Letters of John Keats

John Keats was a brilliant student of medicine, his biographers say. He had a unique way of talking about certain conditions that were revealing his calling as a poet. So they say. And I can imagine it to be true.

Keats suffered from tuberculosis, which was deadly in his days. He was chronically ill himself and yet he wanted to heal others.

Words and symbols are carrying magic. This belief is probably as old as language and art, as humanity. Keats is putting it into words in his own way, in the context of his time.

Writing as therapy? Many on this platform are guilty of this. Don’t give up, please. Maybe we can never pronounce the healing poem Keats dreamed of, maybe because we are just human. Still, look at his legacy!