Review of The Lumen Issue 003 by Mr. Ejaz Rahim

Ejaz Rahim is a retired Cabinet Secretary of Government of Pakistan and an award-winning poet. He is the author of 25 books of English Verse.

Dear respected Dr. Amjad,

The latest Lumen journal arrived yesterday. Thank you ever so much for sharing this gem of a publication which stands for a synoptic vision of a complementary relationship between the Sciences, especially Medical Sciences, and Humanities and the Creative Arts.  Your championship of this symbiotic possibility in the realm of human learning and practice has indeed produced fruitful results. The Lumen in hand is shining evidence of your university’s success in this field.

I am very moved by the over-arching sense of humanity, humility and creativity reflected in the jottings and drawings as well as the poems of the students themselves.  Some of their Art Statements simply bowl one over. I must mention ANATOMY OF THE ABDOMEN (‘to capture the awe surgeons have while performing surgery’); A GEOLOGIST MUSES UPON MUD (‘coheres the continent/on which you stand’); STYDY TO THE TEST (‘bookended by understanding that I understand nothing’); FAREWELL TO THE SHOAL (‘why do medical students fall into a rabbit hole?) BEYOND THE SKIN (‘it is the human that comes first, not his or her accompanying pathology ‘’); THE SENTINEL OAK (‘it was a little sentinel oak right in the body’); BRAINSTKRMING (‘creativity and growth within ourselves and the environment around us’); and finally RADIOGRAPHIC REFKECTIONS(..to the point that they don’t recognize their own reflections’’). If I have left out some, it is because of shortage of space and time; the others are just as meaningful.

For me half a dozen poems by Dr. Lloyd Jacobs contained at the end of the journal constitute the alpha and omega of this document.  These are some of the finest poems I have encountered on the theme of the two universes: the universe we inhabit and the universe that inhabits us. With the precision of a surgeon and the mystique of a poet, he brings together decay and growth, senescence and memory, tenacity and fragility, doubt and fidelity, our trepidation’s a bout transience and intimations of transcendence, and indeed the mystery behind the powerlessness and powerfulness of creatures and things. Some of his lines are truly memorable:

‘Why creatures and meadows know the time to turn from brown/to green’.......’why God wears the universe like a tattered shirt, soft with bemused/affection, a domed paean of poured love’ (I DONT KNOW, MY CHILD)

“My sins were peccadilloes mere/terrified, praying for a sudden death’ (THE WAITING ROOM)

‘Can they read a dream? The universe/is convulsed by my heart’s convulsion’ (RHYTHM)

‘What will remain when God’s/procreative work is finished?’) (THE PRIGNOSIS)

(...sutures/which hold the sky atop our brown earth/ despite the sky of spirit and stars and moon/ yearning to drift away’. ) THE SURGEON POET).

In my view, the surgeon poet poem is a thing of beauty and mystery, the two great forces in our lives that give a fuller and grander perspective to ‘the clairvoyance of reason’! Do please convey my compliments and regards to Dr Jacobs.

Finally, Dr. Amjad, to your two essays in this volume of the Lumen. Reading you is always a learning experience because you continue to be a doyen of two worlds melded into one. You view the strengths and frailties if either with a certain playful empathy and tolerant understanding. I loved your advocacy of going beyond the Science-Art divide in your essay on HOW TO PLUG THE HOLE IN LIZA’S BUCKET.  The Liza-Henry song is full of basic wisdom. Then comes your wonderful recall of the other Henry, the one who devours his wives. The true American heart is reflected in the University campuses of America, also mirrored in the writings of your students in this journal.  Your reference to the historical Henry is indeed a lesson in history underlining the imperative of both justice and compassion. I believe that if Maurice Maeterlinck has perused your essay, he would have put the figure at Ten Thousand And One! Allow me to grab this opportunity to express my admiration for Dr. Grubb’s essay REPRISE, passing from “memento mori” to “memento vivere” ....’the time to act is now’, he adds with conviction and authority.

Thanking you, Dr. Amjad Sahib, for sharing this volume.

Sincere regards.

Ejaz Rahim

Islamabad, Pakistan

April 25, 2024