written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Saturday 30 January 2021

Handwritten In The Style

I was born to be a doctor: good manners, compassionate nature, analytical mind, almost illegible handwriting. 

But then at age eight I found myself in old Miss Davy's junior school class. (I say old; she must have been fifty if she was a day.) She took it upon herself to coach my ink-stained fingers into producing perfect joined-up copperplate script - and I was lost to the medical profession for ever ;-)

A doctor writes...
We all know GPs and medics as a whole are renowned for their difficult-to-decipher script. How pharmacists must have cursed before typewritten prescriptions became standard issue. If I try hard I can just about make out most of what is being explained in the doctor's note above but the challenge of trying to read poorly-fashioned hand-writing gave me an idea for today's poem, which also draws on my current reading matter, A.J. Ayer's seminal treatise 'Language, Truth and Logic '.

A Doctor Writes
















(Deciphered):
I recommend a daily dose of logical empiricism
-  take one grain of salted truth
   dissolve in aqueous humour
   and let it sink in.
Resolve to be better tomorrow
    but
    if wayward fantasies persist repeat
    as instructed above until
Conscience and judgement are clear.
                          
                           Signed...

Thanks for reading. Stay healthy, S ;-)

mens sana in corpore sano

19 comments:

Boz said...

Ha ha good one la' :D

Malcolm Drysdale said...

This thing about doctors having near illegible writing: was it so their patients couldn't read the shocking truth? or so their writing was hard to copy and forge? It's a curious phenomenon but you've used it well.

Anonymous said...

Interesting!

LadyCurt said...

Amusing and true.....

Deke Hughes said...

Very good Steve and cleverly done. The poem reminds me of your Koans poem from a couple of summers ago (the one based on the sayings of Hippocrates).

Ross Madden said...

Droll, but true. My Dad was a GP - had the worst handwriting.

Lizzie Fentiman said...

This made me smile Steve. Salted truth is at a premium these days. Stay wise.

The Existentialist said...

Spot on. Let's all be more philosophical about life and less materialistic.

Binty said...

Just as well you provided a decipherment!!! :)

Billy Banter said...

Succinct - like a prescription. Oh, wait, it is one. (LOL)

CI66Y said...

A clever idea Steve. I like the way you try out original things on your blogs.

Mary Jane Evans said...

A clever concept and sound advice from the good doctor. :)

Jeanie Buckingham said...

❤️

Mac Southey said...

Did you write A Doctor Writes with the hand you don't normally write with? Or is it just heavily disguised? Anyway, a neat idea and a sensible prescription.

Rochelle said...

I liked the dissolve/resolve rhyme and the line "Resolve to be better tomorrow" :)

Peter Fountain said...

Ink-stained fingers: I remember desks at primary school having ink wells and we wrote with dip-in nibbed wooden pens. Blotches were a hazard!

Ben Templeton said...

I loved the lines "take one grain of salted truth/ dissolve in aqueous humour" because they are so suggestive of an apothecary. 👍

Anonymous said...

That must be one of your shortest blogs ever, Mr. R?

Maija Ozolina said...

☀️💖✨✨✨🤗