Table 4.

Mitchell’s I-Poem

What I experience

What I’m experiencing

I keep it pure and not interpret it

I don’t know

I left the hospital

Came over here to XX lake

Sitting at a picnic table

I saw an otter go in the lake

I didn’t know otters went into the lake

I found out, sometimes they do

This incredible experience of this creature

Out there living his life I mean

Circumstance allowed me to see it

Take comfort from it

***

We shaved her head for when the chemo started

I offered to shave mine too

I wrote

I’ve been focused on is: everybody has pain

I draped the hair

I cut from her head

Over a magnolia branch, as an offering

We said, “Maybe some creature could use your hair for a nest.”