Little Pharma: Poems

by Laura Kolbe

The title Little Pharma is both a doppelgänger and a cri de coeur : as the poet’s dreamlike double, the character Little Pharma navigates the murky channels of the hospital and clinic, the borderlands of the living and the dead, and the journey from novice to healer. At the same time, the poems plead for a return to a littler pharma, a space for stolen intimacy and momentary quiet amid the impersonal and engulfing chill that floods the anatomical theater and the corridors of illness. Little Pharma is a Dantean journey from the depths of an institution, and of a pervading personal dread, to a renewed celebration of human contact, the body, and the giddy, terrifying excitement of ongoing life.

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

Published October 26, 2021

Reviews

[Bruce Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This award winning volume of poetry adds a wonderful texture to Dr. Kolbe's fine portfolio of essays and long-form journalism. She chooses words with care and precision throughout. As others have mentioned, "Buried Abecedary for Intensive Care," (which first appeared in the New York Times Magazine) is a remarkable poem that reverberates. Did I understand every reference to other sources or places? No, I did not. But I loved reading and re-reading these poems.

[Ekmef · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful poetry in exactly the style I like, but reading poetry in English is a totally different experience compared to reading prose. Being able to read on a C2 level does not translate very well to being able to understand the myriad of linguistic references - what significance do certain images or colors have in English? etc. So, frankly, I didn't 'get' most of the poems despite them being written in very accessible language.

The 'Buried Abecedary for Intensive Care' remains my favorite poem in the book (seeing this online is what prompted me to buy this collection). "It's called an awakening trial when the pleasanter drugs stop. (...) Called underventilation when the gas is more like the future planet's. (...) Called zeroing out when they prepare the machines for the next body.

Two other pearls:
Little Pharma encounters the spine - "who believes we will not have perception as a fleshly proper right?"
Little Pharma's course in sonography - "nothing escapes a method".

[Amie Whittemore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I was once in a writing group with the author, Laura Kolbe, so I saw some of these poems when they were little hatchlings many moons ago. It's a wonder to see them spread their wings. Laura's such a smart and inventive writer, risky with her syntax and leaping. Her poems always feel like long-legged gifts, foals with wings, birthy and new. This is a book I hope to return to again and again. A marvelous debut!

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy shit, more poets should also be doctors if we get poems like this. Dr. Kolbe takes her experience in the medical field and translates it into poetry in a way that is weird and unexpected and wonderful. I have never been interested in the process of PET scans or what it's like to dissect a cadaver, but in Kolbe's hands they become beautiful, revelatory experiences. How could they not be with lines like, "I want him to want the mess again, chew, exaggerated breakage like the closing of a Punch show" or "I try to be gentle in case a soul-part cares after it's all done". The collection loses it sharp focus and insight around parts IV and V when the focus shifted away from the medical world into other topics, but as a whole collection it is still remarkable. Highly recommended!

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a hard time getting into this one. I found the vocab to be a barrier for me, though I did enjoy the abecedarian in this collection. Little Pharma offers a glimpse of what it is like to be a doctor. An interesting intersection of anatomy and compassion.