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, devised by our PPIE Lead Jenny Hasenfuss, aims to bring the complex issue of organ donation and transplantation to life in an interesting and accessible way.
Jenny 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
