Diastole

The American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions are this weekend, so the news feeds and social media streams will be busy with late-breaking trials and hot takes.

As a counterweight, I offer this poem from 1999 by Dr. George Braman. It connects aging, memories, and the energy-dependent, vital process of cardiac diastole - the letting go.

Diastole

How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob,
Thy dwelling places, O Israel.
-Numbers 24:5

Jacob was old now, crippled and half blind,
Groping shadows, seeing less before him
Than in tunneled dreams, what he left behind.
His fair Rachel, in vision or by whim
She appears before him now, in beauty
And youth, as when she was seen at the well—
Grasped his heart at first meeting, in duty
And truth, an angel who had cast her spell.

Then young Joseph, a cherub as he slept,
A prince long before he became a prince
In far Egypt, and how he grieved and wept,
Grieves still at what deep memories evince.
Groping shadows, their precious passing slow,
Like diastole, like the letting go.

George N. Braman, MD
Bronx, NY 10471

Ann Intern Med. 1999;131(10):785