Veneta Masson

I'm a nurse, poet and essayist living in Maryland, just outside Washington, DC. You can find more of my work as well as a couple of YouTube links at www.sagefemmepress.com.

Like most other writers, I try to make sense of what's happened to me by putting it into words and, from those words, I make art. And like most other nurses whose career has spanned several decades, I've experienced a lot!

Probably the most tumultuous and remarkable years were the ones I spent as family nurse practitioner and director of a small, inner-city clinic in Washington. There, like Langston Hughes's character, Sister Mary, I got my feet caught in the "sweet flypaper of life."

You can read about my clinic years in two books. The first, a collection of poems (come on you skeptics, give poetry a chance!), is "Rehab at the Florida Avenue Grill." The second, "Ninth Street Notebook--Voice of a Nurse in the City," contains stories, lessons and reflections from the ragged edge of the real world of nursing and health care. While out of print, it's still available through Amazon or as a free download at the Sage Femme Press website.

In 2008, I published a poetry collection called, "Clinician's Guide to the Soul," inspired by the pocket-size guides to lab values, drug doses, and treatment protocols I used to rely on during my clinic years. These poems about nursing, medicine, illness and life are meant for professional and family caregivers, readers of poetry and all who care about the art and science of healing.

My most recent published collection (2022) is "Heresies to Live By." In it, you'll see that I've enlarged my focus to include observations and insights I've gained while pondering my own formative experiences, epiphanies and spiritual questions over the course of what has turned out to be a long life.