Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Organ Donation and Transplantation

NIHR

  • Home
  • Our Research
    • Theme 1: Novel Perfusion Technologies
    • Theme 2: Organ Donation and Utilisation
    • Theme 3: Improving Long-term Outcomes
    • Theme 4: National Registry Analysis and Health Data Science
    • Theme 5: Genomics and Biomarkers
    • Theme 6: Applied Health Research and Inequalities in Transplantation
    • Publications list
    • Industry
  • Get involved
    • Our Patient and Public Research Panel
    • Our research explained
    • Get involved newsletter
    • Giving back and learning together – Q&A with a panel member
    • Our PPIE strategy
    • Public engagement events
    • Haiku poetry collection
    • Jargon buster
    • Useful links
  • Events
  • ISC
  • Faculty
  • 2015-2022 NIHR BTRU in ODT
  • Contact us

Haiku poetry collection

We’re delighted to share with you a few of the poems in our growing poetry collection, all penned by colleagues and friends from the BTRU. This initiative aims to bring the complex issue of organ donation and transplantation to life in an interesting and accessible way. 

We invited everyone from across the BTRU to create Haiku, a Japanese form of poetry in the format of 5-7-5 syllables. Haiku can be read very quickly and so are an accessible way to communicate the value and benefit of our complex research. The collection has poems from PhD students, clinicians, lay members and researchers and so is a chance to learn from each other’s perspectives and build shared understanding within the BTRU and beyond.

We’ve all been inspired by the Haiku created so far and look forward to building on and sharing the collection more in the future.

Once we were strangers
Brought together by a cause
Friendship blossoms here

BTRU Patient and Public Research Panel member


Beat, beat, beat, beat, beat
The world’s greatest orchestra
Giving life to me

BTRU Patient and Public Research Panel member


After you are gone
You can recycle your life
The ultimate gift

Medical Director


When for me hope ends
Knowing others now will live
Heals the pain of loss

BTRU Staff member


Was mine, now it’s yours
Look after it carefully
Two lifetimes is good

BTRU Patient and Public Research Panel member


I’ve never seen you
Never notice that you’re there
But you’re there for me

BTRU Patient and Public Research Panel member


On the transplant list
it’s a roller coaster ride
for a chance to live

BTRU Patient and Public Research Panel member


Translating sciences
Overcoming barriers
The B T R U

BTRU Researcher


I gaze down on it,
The organ is sleek, sharp edged,
A gift from a child.

I can’t see inside,
Geometric hexagons,
Silent symphony.

Later the man wakes,
Given his life back afresh,
The yellow fading.

Academic Clinical Fellow in General Surgery


Ground breaking research?
No, just small improvements.
One step at a time.

BTRU Researcher

The full Haiku collection can be found here.

Get involved

  • Our Patient and Public Research Panel
  • Our research explained
  • Get involved newsletter
  • Giving back and learning together - Q&A with a panel member
  • Haiku poetry collection
  • Our PPIE strategy
  • Public engagement events
  • Jargon buster
  • Useful links

Colour logo RGB_DM-270px

Newcastle-270px

Our partners

University of Cambridge
Newcastle University
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT)
Cambridge University Hospitals
Newcastle Hospitals Trust

Copyright © 2023 NIHR BTRU in ODT. Last updated 24 January 2023. . Hosted by CSCS Web Services