What do you think?
Rate this book
The Poetry of Healing: A Doctor's Education in Empathy, Identity, and Desire
A stunning prose debut combining the intimate lyricism of a Richard Rodriguez, the compassionate expertise of an Abraham Verghese. The healing powers of speech, of touch, of empathy and the erotic, of love itselfthese are some of the themes of Rafael Campo's deeply humanistic work, as he writes not just of his attempts to heal but also of how his patients have healed him, and of how often doctors may forget to include caring among their medicines for curing. From his arresting first chapter, one is in the hands of a writer who bridges the clinical distance of medicine to face the pain of mortality, the brokenness of society, and the unique and vulnerable beauty of human beings. He writes of campy Aurora, "dying of love"; the elderly woman telling of her trip to the country to pick "big-as-your-hands" peaches; a hateful addict he wished would die; and Gary, whom he feared to love, "contentious and gossipy and irreverent." He recalls the beginning of his journey toward the healing arts in a childhood where the pain of bumps and bruises was alleviated by a parent's kisses and "to be well meant to be loved." Throughout, he uncovers the truths of his own passions and fears, of the tragic flaws in health care, and of his education and life as primary-care doctor, poet, Latino, and gay man within the medical establishment. This is a beautiful, transcendent, and necessary book. This book has been republished in paperback under the title The Desire to Heal.
270 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
4 people are currently reading
234 people want to read
About the author
Rafael Campo
31 books37 followersDr. Rafael Campo, MD (Harvard Medical School, 1992; M.A., English, Amherst College; B.S., neuroscience, Amherst College), is a poet and doctor of internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He is also on the faculty of Lesley University's Creative Writing MFA Program.
His first collection of poems, The Other Man Was Me: A Voyage to the New World, won the National Poetry Series Open Competition in 1993. What the Body Told (1996) won a Lambda Literary Award, and Diva was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1999. The Poetry of Healing (1996) also received a Lambda Literary Award for Memoir.
Campo is a PEN Center West Literary Award finalist and a recipient of the National Hispanic Academy of Arts and Sciences Annual Achievement Award. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Echoing Green Foundation. He frequently lectures widely and gives seminars and workshops relating to medicine, literary writing, and culture.
His first collection of poems, The Other Man Was Me: A Voyage to the New World, won the National Poetry Series Open Competition in 1993. What the Body Told (1996) won a Lambda Literary Award, and Diva was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1999. The Poetry of Healing (1996) also received a Lambda Literary Award for Memoir.
Campo is a PEN Center West Literary Award finalist and a recipient of the National Hispanic Academy of Arts and Sciences Annual Achievement Award. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Echoing Green Foundation. He frequently lectures widely and gives seminars and workshops relating to medicine, literary writing, and culture.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 21, 2012
I almost didn't read this book. I was expecting a discourse on the healing power of the creative arts as an alternative therapy in medicine. Campo may write about that elsewhere, but not here. If anything, the book concerns the power of poetry for the physician in need of healing.
Campo's book is part memoir, part polemic. Chiefly, it recounts his struggles to forge a single identiy as doctor, poet, Latino, and gay man. He articulates with considerable and painful clarity the many ways in which these separate identities have been in conflict. They seem finally to come together in his role as a physician to AIDS patients. But even in that there is conflict, both with the devastating nature of the disease and the efforts of managed health care to diminish his best efforts to fulfill his calling as a doctor.
As memoir, his book retraces the steps of his life journey into his profession (at the time of the book's writing he is still a young doctor, in his early 30s). We meet his Cuban-American parents, learn of his middle class suburban background, and hear of his struggles of sexual identity, which produce in him intense shame, anger and fear. We follow him to Amherst, where he meets and falls in love with a fellow med student who becomes his life partner, and from there to residency in UCSF hospital in San Francisco. He describes his bout with suspected cancer, discovered after a skiing accident. And he tells of a patient, Gary, dying of AIDS, who teaches him much about being both a doctor and a poet.
As polemic, his book argues against homophobia (even as he overcomes it in himself) and its contribution to the continuing health crisis for gay men. He argues that the catch phrase "safe sex" diminishes the fragile self-esteem and challenges the identities of gay men. He argues that modern medicine, with its reliance on technology and pharmaceuticals and insistence on professional objectivity, robs young doctors of the compassion, empathy, and desire that drew them into the profession in the first place -- and thus makes them less effective in the delivery of health care. And he argues for the legitimacy of poetry as both a practice and a guiding metaphor for the role of physician. He notes that poetry and healing are both arts; one informs and supports the other.
I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the practice of modern medicine, the training and self-education of physicians, and journeys of self-discovery. It is especially affirming in its embrace of same-sex affection, love, and passion. As companion volumes, I recommend two other books: Richard Rodriguez' memoir "Hunger of Memory" and Abraham Verghese's account of his experience as an AIDS doctor, "My Own Country."
Campo's book is part memoir, part polemic. Chiefly, it recounts his struggles to forge a single identiy as doctor, poet, Latino, and gay man. He articulates with considerable and painful clarity the many ways in which these separate identities have been in conflict. They seem finally to come together in his role as a physician to AIDS patients. But even in that there is conflict, both with the devastating nature of the disease and the efforts of managed health care to diminish his best efforts to fulfill his calling as a doctor.
As memoir, his book retraces the steps of his life journey into his profession (at the time of the book's writing he is still a young doctor, in his early 30s). We meet his Cuban-American parents, learn of his middle class suburban background, and hear of his struggles of sexual identity, which produce in him intense shame, anger and fear. We follow him to Amherst, where he meets and falls in love with a fellow med student who becomes his life partner, and from there to residency in UCSF hospital in San Francisco. He describes his bout with suspected cancer, discovered after a skiing accident. And he tells of a patient, Gary, dying of AIDS, who teaches him much about being both a doctor and a poet.
As polemic, his book argues against homophobia (even as he overcomes it in himself) and its contribution to the continuing health crisis for gay men. He argues that the catch phrase "safe sex" diminishes the fragile self-esteem and challenges the identities of gay men. He argues that modern medicine, with its reliance on technology and pharmaceuticals and insistence on professional objectivity, robs young doctors of the compassion, empathy, and desire that drew them into the profession in the first place -- and thus makes them less effective in the delivery of health care. And he argues for the legitimacy of poetry as both a practice and a guiding metaphor for the role of physician. He notes that poetry and healing are both arts; one informs and supports the other.
I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the practice of modern medicine, the training and self-education of physicians, and journeys of self-discovery. It is especially affirming in its embrace of same-sex affection, love, and passion. As companion volumes, I recommend two other books: Richard Rodriguez' memoir "Hunger of Memory" and Abraham Verghese's account of his experience as an AIDS doctor, "My Own Country."
December 29, 2019
Im still digesting this book. Some chapters really pulled me in, and his language was beautiful to experience. But I think I struggled in the beginning with the erotic discourse about his patients and the jumping timeline. It was humbling to have him be so honest about his biases and explain the mistakes he made, and then grew from. I often found myself having to reread passages because his language is so dense and wordy. Ultimately though, the end of the book pulled me in and I was touched by his conversations about identity, his empathy towards his patients, and his own trauma that he shared. Overall a worthwhile read, and perhaps one I’ll need to read again to fully grasp.
January 24, 2026
❝ ― 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍 ― ❞
• » ♡ « •
Nothing to critique as it's someone’s personal experiences. It’s a doctor’s account of his experience as a gay doctor, himself, during the AIDS pandemic. It’s uncomfortably beautiful. It’s intense. It’s intimate. It’s raw. It’s powerful. It’s quietly devastating. It’s a book that makes you sit, listen, feel and reflect.
The book was not what I was expecting. The advertisement for the book was misleading. I bought it secondhand from an Australian website that proceeds go to helping to end Poverty. I was expecting traditional Poetry.
However, it was still a very powerful read.
• » ♡ « •
Nothing to critique as it's someone’s personal experiences. It’s a doctor’s account of his experience as a gay doctor, himself, during the AIDS pandemic. It’s uncomfortably beautiful. It’s intense. It’s intimate. It’s raw. It’s powerful. It’s quietly devastating. It’s a book that makes you sit, listen, feel and reflect.
The book was not what I was expecting. The advertisement for the book was misleading. I bought it secondhand from an Australian website that proceeds go to helping to end Poverty. I was expecting traditional Poetry.
However, it was still a very powerful read.
June 12, 2022
Read this for a interdisciplinary humanities class, and it made me rethink of what empathy can and cannot do. We discuss how this poetic work has real life lessons, like when sometimes trying to your best to help others and then bearing testament to why other should as well, even if it seems hopeless. This book changed me, for the better.
June 19, 2017
Honestly a little to weird for me but the author is clearly an astounding human and it was humbling to read his story.
May 29, 2025
Honesty to a point of freakishness, often beautifully conveyed
December 8, 2008
This was a powerful book that will have me reflecting for a long time. I heard Dr. Campo speak about his work and his poetry in October, and was impressed with his essential humanity. The book is unlike anything else I've read ... essays/personal reflections on the intersection of being a doctor, a poet, a gay man, a Latino, and working primarily with AIDS patients. The language is incredibly rich with unexpected metaphors and descriptors ... the mind behind the language is very aware of the strengths and frailties of humans and of the health care system in America.
August 14, 2008
Very emotional, very powerful for those who are interested in medicine and healing, but language sometimes over the top. Intriguing goal, to blend poetry with a book about doctoring, to describe doctor-patient relationships poetically. Kudos for trying something new! Too many doctors' memoirs are all about ego, and written by people who can't write well. Not so with Campo.
July 12, 2007
lyrical and intelligent...unlike the dull trite accounts written by most doctors
September 24, 2009
Through a series of essays, Campo explores his medical training and residency during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. He shares his thoughts on the intersection of medicine and poetry.
Read
September 15, 2018I would definitely recommend it to all physicians who are trying to change the world, one patient at a time. :)
October 22, 2007
pretty good, and a really interesting perspective from a physician.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews