—FROM FINAL JUDGE JACK COULEHAN—

Our three Honorable Mention poems demonstrate the wonderful variety of medical poetry. “Go With Me” presents an unforgettable scene of a man externally facing death with a tough veneer, his “four decade/shroud of smoke,” but from within the smoke comes the voice of a vulnerable human being who pleads, “Go with me … part way/and come back.” And we see the remarkable gift of love that shines as the poem ends—”that's what I did.”