This poem is part of the Medical Humanities vertical on Op-Med, which showcases creative writing by Doximity members. Do you have a poem, work of lyric prose, comic, or flash fiction piece related to medicine that you’d like to share with the community? Send it to us here.
Merci, Renoir
Ten years before your hands rebelled.
Tendons curling into knots.
Ten years before the fires
burned deep within each aching joint:
Two sisters
on a terrace by the Seine.
In your gaze, bright colors bloomed —
red hat, pink lips, blue dress.
The girl’s fingertips gently curved,
her basket filled with flowers.
The older one folds her lovely hands,
a sly smile at you, for you?
All is light, charm, grace, and youth.
How could your twosome know, or you?
Ten years before the awful truth.
Great suffering came, yet still you paint.
Wild with purpose,
paintbrush strained between fingers,
stiff and swollen, still fully sacred.
La douleur passe, la beaute reste.
So you said, long master of both.
The pain passes, the beauty remains.
*Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), French impressionist artist, developed severe rheumatoid arthritis around age 50. He painted one of his masterpieces, “Two Sisters (On the Terrace)” 10 years earlier.
An Interview with the Author
What was your inspiration? Did other creative works influence your creation of this piece?
Renoir’s painting “Two Sisters (On the Terrace)” hangs in the Art Institute in Chicago, my hometown. My mother needlepointed it many years ago. When she passed away, I kept her needlepointed version, and I admire it daily. I recently learned about Renoir's horrific chronic pain. The painting and the needlepointed version remind me — art can not only help heal, it can help us endure.
How long have you been writing creatively? What got you started?
Writing has just always been part of my life: before medical school, after medical school, and beyond.
Why did you choose this medium? What interests you about it?
Poetry speaks a universal language of emotion.
How does this submission relate to your medical practice?
It’s important to remember that despite patient suffering and chronic pain, there can still be great bravery and beauty in their experiences (and ours).
What works of art remind you of your patients? Share in the comments.
