Poetic Prescription

Twice a month, a conference room at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Md., becomes an oasis for relatives of young people being treated there for life-threatening illnesses.

In the conference room, the Vital Signs Poetry Project sets up shop. The charity is the brainchild of Davi Walders, a Chevy Chase, Md., poet who runs the sessions with a therapist, Lori Wiener. Ms. Walders hopes the contemporary poems that participants read aloud will touch on issues parents or guardians of sick children might be coping with, such as uncertainty and despair, and will encourage discussion. Each program closes with a brief poetry-writing session.

The project receives support from the Children’s Inn at NIH, a nonprofit organization that runs a temporary home for families whose children are being treated at the National Institutes of Health, and the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, in Santa Fe, N.M., which recently underwrote the publication of a compilation of favorite poems read aloud during Vital Signs sessions, as well as poems written by participants.

Ms. Walders hopes the book will spark similar programs at other organizations. In addition, every room at the Children’s Inn has a binder of these poems. Here, a mother and daughter read poetry to each other from one of those binders.