A few weeks ago, as I was writing a thank-you note to an editor at the American Journal of Nursing which just published a poem of mine, it occurred to me to wonder when my work first appeared in that journal. Oh my! It was 42 years ago—and it was not a poem but an article about international nursing. Rummaging through my curriculum vitae, I discovered that my first professional publication was dated just one year before that. What a long span as nurse and writer these 43 years reflect! The list of articles and books also reveals my personal and professional evolution. I had imagined I would have a career in international health but in time was drawn into a new field of practice as hands-on nurse clinician in primary health care, then in later years, as part-time editor, small-time publisher, workshop leader and, finally, teacher of health care ethics. Meantime my preferred medium of expression was changing. I abandoned expository writing but continued to produce essays. From essays I gravitated to poetry which I found satisfying because its language is musical, metaphorical and concise. It activates the imagination in a way that often leads to revelation.
Twenty-some years after that first publication, I began Sage Femme Press as a way to share my explorations of healing art. Though I’ve had reason to regret my choice of the French term for midwife which many Americans find awkward to pronounce and others mistake for a website about midwifery, I stand by it. The literal translation is wise woman. To be a wise woman is my aspiration as nurse and poet. Whether it means helping revive health as a nurse or birth new insights as a poet, it’s as good a reason for being as any I can imagine.