I'm a nurse, poet, and essayist living in Washington, DC.
Like most other writers, I've long had the habit of trying to make sense of what's happened to me by putting it into words. And like most other nurses who have worked in and out of hospitals, both here and abroad, I've experienced a lot!
Probably the most tumultuous and remarkable years were the ones I spent as family nurse practitioner and director of a small, inner-city clinic here in Washington. Like Langston Hughes's character, Sister Mary, I got my feet caught in the 'sweet flypaper of life.'
You can read about my clinic years in two books. The first, a collection of poems (come on you skeptics, give poetry a chance!), is 'Rehab at the Florida Avenue Grill.' The second, 'Ninth Street Notebook--Voice of a Nurse in the City' contains stories, lessons and reflections from the ragged edge of the real world of nursing and health care.
In 2008, I published a new collection of poems, "Clinician's Guide to the Soul," modeled on the pocket-size guides to lab values, drug doses, and treatment protocols I used to rely on during my clinic years. These poems about nursing, medicine, illness and life are meant for professional and family caregivers and all who care about the art and science of healing.
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"A gift to the world of people who care." -- Marie Stoline, RN
From the Publisher
This nurse's poems make strong medicine and memorable stories! Like Langston Hughes' character, Sister Mary, poet Veneta Masson got her feet caught in the "sweet flypaper of life" during her 35 years as a nurse, particularly the 17 years she spent caring for "a motley assortment of patients, some of whom considered themselves family" in the rough and tumble Shaw neighborhood of Washington, DC.
According to Masson, each of the poems in her new book, "Rehab at the Florida Avenue Grill," contains a story. "These often began as conversations with my colleagues or journal entries written in celebration, sorrow, or frustration at the end of a day. Months or years later, when they had 'cooled off' enough to be worked into poems, they found their way into the annual reports of the small clinic where I worked and, one by one, into the literature of my profession." Soul food for caregivers and all who care about healing art, these poems are also a tribute to patients like "Aretha", who introduced her to a local institution, the Florida Avenue Grill, and taught her the real meaning of the term rehabilitation.
"Rehab at the Florida Avenue Grill," gracefully designed by new talent, Lisa Carey, is a 100- page paperback that includes favorites from Masson's earlier book, Just Who, which sold out its 2000 print run, mostly hand to hand.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deeply moving and real,
By A Customer
This review is from: Rehab at the Florida Avenue Grill (Paperback)
When Mason says that her patients become poems, she's not kidding. Fortunately for the reader, this works both ways: the poems recreate the patients. And what a wonderful bunch they are! She's a talented writer, but she doesn't get lost in the art of the poetry. Her ear for what her patients say (and mean), and how she intertwines it in her work, is what makes it all so real and powerful. I'm thankful for the insight this little book has given me to the goings-on inside the hearts of patients and their nurses. Oh, and it's a beautiful little coffee-table book, too.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful words for nurses,
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This review is from: Rehab at the Florida Avenue Grill (Paperback)
I've bought 8 copies of this book because I keep giving them away to nurses who are important to me.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Standing at attention in the damp dawn of my novitiate I take down everything I need to know about his deteriorating condition scheduled labs and consults the machines and their quirks the tubes, meds and procedures that please God will keep him alive, at least through my shift. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bobby Everybody, Maggie Jones New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Standing at attention in the damp dawn of my novitiate I take down everything I need to know about his deteriorating condition scheduled labs and consults the machines and their quirks the tubes, meds and procedures that please God will keep him alive, at least through my shift. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bobby Everybody, Maggie Jones New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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