I wrote this on the train on my way to do a talk in Nottingham about public involvement in research. It was early morning, I was looking for something different to do and say and I realised it was World Poetry Day. I read it out at the end of my talk under the guise of ‘anon’ (such a coward). Worked on it a bit more on the way home and posted it on my work blog.
If we work together
We can do it better
This thing called research.
This endeavour.
So here I am
Neither subject nor guinea pig
With no letters after my name.
But I know a thing or two.
About what it’s like.
About what it’s really like.
And all I ask
Is that you let me ask
Why, when, who and what for?
I’ll work with you on a cure
Although I’ll be long dead by then I’m sure
(But who knows we might get lucky).
If you’ll also help me with the pain
And making the day
Worth waking for.
For when dusk does night betray
I want to be able to say
I made a difference for me, for you, for us.
Now that we are working together
Wouldn’t you say
it’s better?
This thing called life.
April 2013
Simon Denegri Poetry 