{"id":299,"date":"2019-08-20T15:06:06","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T14:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=299"},"modified":"2019-08-20T15:06:06","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T14:06:06","slug":"art-and-science-unite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2019\/08\/20\/art-and-science-unite\/","title":{"rendered":"ART AND SCIENCE UNITE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The worlds of arts and of medicine do not overlap very often,\ndespite recent interesting developments in the UK such as the Poetry On\nPrescription scheme and Clinical Commissioning Groups having some monies in\ntheir budget available for buying in therapeutic arts interventions to boost\nindividual and communal well-being, Even with these initiatives now fairly well\nestablished, it was still a surprise to see a recent article by Paul Glynn, the\nEntertainment and Arts reporter for BBC News, creating a cocktail of poetry and\npills to tell of a commission by The Institute For Cancer Research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was also immediately drawn to the story by the fact that it\nseemed to focus on Simon Armitage, the poet, writer and broadcaster. I studied\ncreative writing under him at the University Of Leeds twenty years ago when he\nwas much younger than I, as, indeed, he still is. I was also very privileged to\nhave been given permission to deliver the first public reading a few years of\nSimon\u00b4s poem, Consider The Poppy. The piece was written to commemorate the\nhundredth centenary of the start of the First World War, and I read the work at\na ceremonial event in Rochdale in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appointed as our Poet Laureate in May of this year, Simon has\nhad his latest work, Finishing It, micro-engraved on to the face of a replica\ncancer pill. Apparently the piece was commissioned by The Institute For Cancer\nResearch and is intended to \u00b4promote and celebrate work being delivered in the\nadvancement of cancer treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon describes his time in post so far as \u00b4really exciting\u00b4\nand said he feels comfortable delivering what is \u00b4exactly the kind of project \u00b4\nhe had in mind when accepting his appointment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He follows names in the laureateship like Tennyson, Betjeman\nand Carole Ann Duffy and says this latest project \u00b4is about a subject that\naffects most families at some time, and I\u00b4m very happy that the poem be used by\nThe Institute in whatever way they want.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went on to say, \u00b4I\u00b4ve only been doing this job, if you can\ncall it a job, for a couple of months now, but this feels like the work I\nshould be doing as a public poet.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.He added that\nhe is \u00b4optimistic about the potential of medicine and of poetry.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With as much care as the Football Association\u00b4s scrivener\nwhen engraving the name of Bolton Wanderers when next they win the FA Cup, the\npoet laureate\u00b4s words have been skilfully inscribed into a tiny facsimile of a\ncancer treatment tablet, measuring only 20 x 30 millimetres. Graham Short, with\npracticed precision, has carved the words of the poem on to a model for display\nin the Centre For Cancer Drug Discovery, scheduled for opening in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Simon Armitage
poet <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Simon, from Marsden near Huddersfield in Yorkshire in the UK,\ntold the BBC that he feels there is common ground in how the arts and the\nsciences \u00b4try to figure out life\u00b4. Although\nacknowledging that he is \u00b4not a scientist by any means\u00b4 the poet said he\nimagines that \u00b4what goes on in those laboratories is as much about trying to\nimagine a future.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He elaborated on how the idea of writing on a tablet has\nbiblical Old Testament connotations. The tablets he was referring to were, of\ncourse, given to Moses and were supposedly written by God\u00b4s finger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon could see the connection\nbetween biblical miracles and how finding a cure for cancer would be likened to\nthem, but recognised that he couldn\u00b4t claim that such miracles could be\ndelivered by a poem. However, he is confident that he can offer \u00b4in the shape\nof a poem and in the shape of this little pill, this little magic bullet, is a\nkind of hope.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Paul Workman, CEO of The\nInstitute Of Cancer Research, London, certainly sees this tiny reproduction of\nthe poem as bearing comparison to methodology being followed under the\nmicroscope by leading scientists throughout the UK. The poem and its engraving\n\u00b4perfectly convey the exquisite precision of the work ICR scientists will be\nconducting\u00b4 in the soon to be opened Centre For Cancer Drug Discovery, in the\naim to create \u00b4a new generation of cancer medicines.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Armitage thinks \u00b4it seems\ninevitable\u00b4 that such research could bring an end to cancer as we know it.\u00b4 He\nexplained that the question of the age is being reframed from being \u00b4will we ever\nfind a cure for cancer?\u00b4 into being a question of how we can manage cancer, and\nlive with cancer, in the way that we now do with other illnesses.\u00b4 He suggests\nit might be that \u00b4there is a philosophical aspect to this as well as a medical\none.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poem itself seems to be fifteen\nlines, or fifty one words, of optimism and defiance, as perhaps captured by the\nfinal adverb \u00b4brazenly\u00b4 and there seems to be so much of the vocabulary that\nreminds us of all aspects of the battle. There is the employment of \u00b4sentence\u00b4\nthat at once reminds us of the particulars of the poetic form and of the\n\u00b4sentence\u00b4 that cancer so often imposes. Similarly, the reference to a \u00b4full\nstop\u00b4 sharply reminds of how decisive cancer can be but also looks ahead to\nwhen we might put a full stop to cancer\u00b4s tyranny. Finishing It seems self-referential\nin describing itself as \u00b4the sugared pill of a poem\u00b4 and yet, clear in its\nwords, and indeed, its title, is the fact that the poet is, indeed \u00b4optimistic about the potential of medicine and of\npoetry\u00b4 to discover a way to manage the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps we are being fanciful in suggesting it seems to have been etched,\nrather than written, with precision and exactitude, but it certainly feels as\nif every word has been rolled on the tongue in an attempt to match diction and\ndefinition and to test and balance every interpretation. Even the title of\nFinishing It invites us to consider what is the \u00b4\u00edt\u00b4 being referred to. Like\nthe lettering on a silver trophy, or tiny tablet this poem is the work of a\nskilled craftsman. (see below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finishing it by Simon Armitage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can’t configure<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a tablet<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

chiselled by God’s finger<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

or forge<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a scrawled prescription,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

but here’s an inscription, formed<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

on the small white dot<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

of its own<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

full stop,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the sugared pill<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

of a poem, one sentence<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

that speaks ill<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

of illness itself, bullet<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

with cancer’s name<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

carved brazenly on it.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The worlds of arts and of medicine do not overlap very often, despite recent interesting developments in the UK such as the Poetry On Prescription scheme and Clinical Commissioning Groups having some monies in their budget available for buying in therapeutic arts interventions to boost individual and communal well-being, Even with these initiatives now fairly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}