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15th September, 2023

Friday Poem – ‘Case History’ by Dannie Abse

Black and white photo of a stethoscope laying beside a pile of old books.

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Case History’ by Dannie Abse from his collection Welsh Retrospective. Friday 22nd September marks Abse’s centenary. Join us at Carnegie House in Bridgend for a special event celebrating his life and work.

Case History ‘Most Welshmen are worthless, an inferior breed, doctor.’ He did not know I was Welsh. Then he praised the architects of the German death-camps – did not know I was a Jew. He called liberals, ‘White blacks’, and continued to invent curses. When I palpated his liver I felt the soft liver of Goering; when I lifted my stethoscope I heard the heartbeats of Himmler; when I read his encephalograph I thought, ‘Sieg heil, mein Führer.’ In the clinic’s dispensary red berry of black bryony, cowbane, deadly nightshade, deathcap. Yet I prescribed for him as if he were my brother. Later that night I must have slept on my arm: momentarily my right hand lost its cunning.
Dannie Abse Remembered: Centenary Celebration. From 7pm Friday 22nd September 2023. Carnegie House, 14 Wnydham Street, Bridgend, CF31 1EF. £5.50 general admission. £3.50 concessions.
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Related Books

Welsh Retrospective

Dannie Abse CBE

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