'I have nothing to say (and I am saying it)': The poetics of nursing

摘要

Introduction: The Italian scientist Carlo Rovelli (2016) suggests that 'our culture is foolish to keep science and poetry separated: they are two tools to open our eyes to the complexity and beauty of the world' (p.88). In this editorial, I will argue that poetry is a valuable but neglected mode of expression that can open our eyes to the complexity and beauty of the human encounters that make up the practice of nursing. I will suggest that a more poetic form of discourse can help practitioners, patients, researchers and academics to understand themselves and each other, not only by providing them with a mode of expression that transcends everyday communication, but by instilling what Heidegger (1966) called a sensibility of 'meditative thinking' which allows meaning to emerge intuitively from practice without the intervention of calculative rationality.