April is poetry month, and Upstate‘s “Healing Muse” authors are giving public readings of their published works. To launch the poetry celebration, 11 authors gathered at the Auburn Public Theater several days in advance (March 29) to read and discuss their work with an audience. They read poems and essays related to health, many of which appear in Upstate‘s literary journal.

David Manfredi MD, a family medicine doctor, read his poems “Doctor Patient” and “Tumor.” Kaylee Wilkinson, a theater administrator, read an essay about anorexia and apple crisp. Bruce Bennett, chair of English at Wells College, read a poem about a man who took up gardening in the final days of cancer, knowing he wouldn't  live to see the plants grow. Elijah Dut BS-RN, an Upstate nurse and alumnus, spoke of  his childhood as a Sudanese refugee and asked “What kind of animal is hunger?”

The next “Healing Muse” reading will be held on Sunday, April 15 at 3 p.m. at Buffalo Street Books, DeWitt Mall  at Cayuga and Tioga streets, Ithaca, NY. The reading is open to the public and organized by Upstate‘s Department of Bioethics and Humanities.