The Rain Stick

This insightful and truthful poem + commentary was shared with me by a medical student.

The Rain Stick (from Academic Medicine)

Upend the rain stick and what happens next

Is a music that you never would have known

To listen for. In a cactus stalk

Downpour, sluice-rush, spillage and backwash

Come flowing through. You stand there like a pipe

Being played by water, you shake it again lightly

And diminuendo runs through all its scales

Like a gutter stopping trickling. And now here comes

A sprinkle of drops out of the freshened leaves,

Then subtle little wets off grass and daisies;

Then glitter-drizzle, almost-breaths of air.

Upend the stick again. What happens next

Is undiminished for having happened once,

Twice, ten, a thousand time before.

Who cares if all the music that transpires

Is the fall of grit or dry seeds through a cactus?

You are like a rich man entering heaven

Through the ear of a raindrop. Listen now again.

By Seamus Heaney


Commentary by Dr. Connelly

"The Rain Stick contains secrets for all who want to, try to, and long to heal and care for others. The opening lines direct the reader toward a mystery that is not often acknowledged in medicine, the mystery of not-knowing. "

"True understanding requires the physician to follow the narrative thread, ask questions to clarify asides, and listen on many levels. Learning from The Rain Stick interested physicians could ask:

If I engage this patient from a perspective of not-knowing, how might I be surprised? If I am open, interested, curious about the patient, what might I understand about him or her or even myself?"

"The impression that patients are static objects is flawed. ... Heaney reminds us that no experience is routine or everyday. Each patient no matter how routine the symptom, as seen by the physician, holds a unique experience within."

"Who cares if all the music that transpires/Is the fall of grit or dry seeds through a cactus?

As judgments precede interactions, physicians become closed, not interested, not curious, not receptive, not caring. And in this diminished state, they do not see or hear the truth arising in the experience with the other."

"... many physicians fear being open and vulnerable with patients. Yet, a closer look at the fear may reveal a deep and personal misunderstanding. Fear does not require abandonment of self. This discomfort can easily be diminished by direct and real human contact as demonstrated by true listening such that the other feels heard and understood."

"Ultimately physicians may be able to share interpersonal lessons and kindness as well as nurturing the potential for personal growth, change, even transformation, if they are willing to-listen now again."