On Valentine’s Day there is love, but there is also caring, and there are always poems. In that spirit, the Alpert Medical School’s chapter of the Gold Humanism Honors Society has chosen Feb. 14 as Solidarity Day for Compassionate Patient Care and is marking the occasion by sharing poetry via e-mail with fellow medical students. Below is an excerpt from one of the poems, “Prayer for a Sick Friend,” by Abraham Sutzkever:




The wicked have too much power,
it would be enough for them to have the strength of rabbits.
Feed the weak one with mercy,
for here he lies: half man, half bedsheet.
I’m his prayer. His lips
have already lost the words.
They’re despoiled seashells
without echo, without salt, without pearls.