Poem - From Where I’m Standing

At the Carers Meeting Point Lunch at the end of July the speaker, Karen Gibb, read a poem for us that had been written by Elspeth Murray for the "Beyond The Tipping Point" conference of the Long Term Condition “Collaborative 14th May 2009. The Poem was inspired by C.S. Lewis's observation of a sunbeam "Looking along the beam and looking at the beam are very different experiences”. She uses her poem to point out the difference it can make to people if they are included and involved in the treatment and management of their condition.

Carers attending the meeting asked if they could have a copy of the poem so here it is.

From Where I’m Standing

In emergency admissions
In the outpatient department
At the here-we-go-again clinic
In yet another waiting room…
From where I’m standing
There’s nothing worse than being treated as an illness
From where I’m standing
There’s nothing worse than being shunted around
From where I’m standing
There’s nothing worse than it all flaring up again
From where I’m standing
There’s nothing worse than not knowing whether to laugh or to cry
Except dealing with people who
Act like they never laugh or cry.

A man walks into a toolshed,
Shuts the door. Sees a sunbeam.
Dust floats in the brightness –
Eddies into the darkness.

He observes the sunbeam.
Shape, density, intensity.
Contemplates it objectively,
dispassionately...

But as he takes a step forward
Into that sunbeam,
Inhales the sunlit tool shed smell,
And feels the warmth on his face,
He sees something else,
Not the beam, not the darkness, not the tools
But, framed in the odd-shaped gap above the door,
Green leaves on the branches of a tree
And, millions of miles beyond them, the sun.

Looking at the beam and
Looking along the beam are
Very different experiences.

Before you take the speck out of your brother’s eye
Let the beam shine into your own eye.


From where I’m lying
It’s good to be listened to
From where I’m sitting
It’s good to be in control
From where I’m standing
It’s good to be given a choice

When I’m shaking
It’s good to be sharing stories
When I’m hurting
It’s good to get more of what I need
When I’m weeping
It’s good to speak on the phone
To the one I call my guardian angel
When I’m dying
It’s good to be with the ones who care the most.

From where I’m standing,
Here in the beam
It all seems perfectly clear.

Elspeth Murray

Thanks to Karen Gibb for bringing the Poem to our attention.