Description
Book SynopsisIn this new collection of poetry, the acclaimed gay Latino physician author Rafael Campo continues his nuanced examination of the primal relationship between language, empathy, and healing.
Trade Review"
Alternative Medicine (a wonderful euphemism for poetry) is an extraordinarily powerful and moving book—especially its central poems about doctoring, about the sadness and helplessness of being a doctor. Only someone who has actually lived these poems could have written them. Rafael Campo is that rare poet. This book makes art out of the pain and blood of experience."—
Lloyd Schwartz, poet and Frederick S. Troy Professor of English, University of Massachusetts, Boston
"Rafael Campo is an extraordinarily skillful poet: his technique manifests itself in the range of forms he so brilliantly masters. But he is also a poet of gravity and poignant observation. Unlike so many people writing today, he has subjects, passions, and themes that are profoundly important."
—Sandra M. Gilbert, poet and Distinguished Professor of English Emerita, University of California, Davis
“In a style both precise and emotional, playful and earnest, Campo delivers a most extraordinary message: that in writing, in seeing, in remembering, and in being, we embody, simultaneously, the ache as well as the cure.” -- Briana Shemroske * Booklist *
"These poems are thoughtful, grounded, elegant and free of B.S. If only more doctors, preachers and writers were willing to do this in the midst of teaching and healing: to listen, and to speak the truth even when that means admitting the truth is not fully to be had, at least not yet." * Seminary Ridge Review *
“Dr. Rafael Campo's poems are precise and incisive. You measure their beats as if listening through a stethoscope. You feel the scalpel cut through to your soul--eschewing anesthesia because you want to be awake and alert for Campo's kind of surgical intervention. He slices through the facade of your life to pull back layers of skin and mores to the core mystery of the purpose of your body.” -- Tom Lombardo * Canadian Medical Association Journal *
“Rafael Campo’s
Alternative Medicine is indeed what this doctor orders. And it is alternative: to the tunnel vision, where-did-the-day-go, mind numbing way I, and I daresay many of us, frequently pass time. Take a swig or a nibble, hold the poet’s hand, meet a new universe.” -- Audrey Shafer * Journal of Medical Humanities *
“
Alternative Medicine is a stunning and valuable tribute to humanitarian love as the one necessary constant in a chaotic world where suffering is all too real. These wise and humane poems are therapeutic and generous. As such, they are essential reading for anyone who feels not only compassion for those who suffer but also believes it is our duty to live a life in the service of humanity.” -- Sonja James * The Journal (Martinsburg, WV) *
