Comments on: The Pronunciation Part

By: Tricia E. Bratton

Tricia E. Bratton — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:23:09 +0000

This collection of poetry gives us a heartfelt window into the world of surgical medicine-written by a brilliant author who was a daily witness to life and death. All of the emotional landscape is here: anger at the medical system that dehumanizes us, anger at the patients who refuse to listen to science, at the political apathy around lack of gun control and its consequences, the feelings of helplessness when all one can do is ‘the pronunciation part’, pronouncing someone dead, the fear that doctors hide when they enter into the surgical room. The poems are haunting in their crisp and explicit descriptions of an inner and outer world that few of us will ever know. Flavian Mark Lupinetti is a prose writer as well as a brilliant poet and I highly recommend this award-winning collection.

By: Sheila Harrigan

Sheila Harrigan — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 15:55:10 +0000

The Pronunciation Part: Flavian Mark Lupinetti

The practice of medicine is its own form of poetry. In this collection, Lupinetti shares artfully crafted true stories as he draws us into the unyielding realities he faces as a cardiac surgeon. Each poem carries emotional weight, wit, and revelations framed in a fitting structure. We follow the author as he hears the “Noise” of each patient’s health complaint and we move together into the inner sanctum of the “Operating Theater” where life and death decisions await. In “Peonies” his role shifts and our empathy tags along as we gradually move to the writer’s final truth in the haunting poem, “After Today.” Lupinetti’s poetry transforms the anonymity of medical care into an intimate reading experience.
– Sheila Harrigan, Albany, New York