“Patty, you should forget poetry and spend some time under a car,” jokes my friend who is a mechanic. Usually, I shrug off his jests about the “impracticality” and, at times, the marginal nature of the poet’s life. Today, I think about how I should reply to his advice. Why do I chase a calling that, at best, my pen can only half answer? A crowd of explanations slowly vies for my attention to answer this puzzling question until one catches my mind’s eye. It’s the experience of a Harvard medical student. This young man saw the wider implications of Claude Bernard’s reflections. Poetry is a stabilizing force in my life that brings a sense of wholeness and offers a vast open space in which my imagination can run wild.

Patricia Cannon has been a Registered Nurse at UCSF since 2001. She has worked in cardiac critical care, neurointensive care, hemeoncology, school nursing, and currently, in research. Her passion is her faith, photography, and the written word in all its forms.

“Running Wild” was inspired by the book Gentle Vengeance by Charles LeBaron.