What Do You See, Nurse?

Monday, 14th April 2014

It has been brought to our attention, since we reproduced the poem ‘Look Closer, Nurse’ in our recent newsletter and on the EDGE website, that we have fallen for something of an urban myth. Rather than having been written by an elderly patient, as is generally believed, the poem was originally written by a nurse – Phyllis McCormack - in 1966. A copy of the poem, written by in own hand, was later, so it is said, discovered in the belongings of a deceased elderly patient and the provenance of poem seems to have become blurred from this point on. It is a tribute to the power of Ms McCormack’s work that it remains undiminished by this revelation.

The poem can be read in full on our News page on this website