Quintessential Listening: Poetry

Stephen C. Pollock is the author of the poetry collection Exits, published by Windtree Press. The book nods to the literary traditions of years past while simultaneously speaking to the present moment. It responds to contemporary anxieties surrounding death and the universal search for meaning in life’s transience. Influenced by Dr. Seuss, Pollock began writing rhymed poems at age nine. In high school, he maintained a poetry journal as part of his sophomore English curriculum, and at Amherst College, he took four rigorous poetry courses. During his final semester at Amherst, in an act of love masquerading as mania, he stopped attending classes, isolated himself from friends, ate and slept reluctantly, and spent five straight weeks writing a metaphysical poem on the theme of subjective vs. objective reality. His professional career was a play in two acts. Trained as a physician, Pollock was recruited to Duke University as Chief of Neuro-Ophthalmology in 1987. His clinical practice consisted of evaluating and c