Catharine Clark-Sayles

a

Catharine Clark-Sayles

is a geriatrician practicing north of San Francisco. She travelled across the United States extensively with a military family while she was young, then became an Army doctor.  When she turned forty she discovered that she had missed her twenties the first time around and reconnected with poetry to find them. 

Saint Julian Press

The Telling
The Listening

Saint Julian Press is proud to announce a new book of poetry, The Telling, The Listening, by author Dr. Catharine Clark-Sayles to be published on October 15, 2023. The Telling, The Listening is a new collection of poems capturing 45 years of Dr. Catharine Clark-Sayles’ medical practice, including her Army service and geriatric care. These compassionate and empathetic verses tell true stories, subtly altered for anonymity, underscoring the therapeutic potential of patient storytelling and attentive listening.

Read the Poems

Catharine Clark-Sayles

Catharine Clark-Sayles is a physician recently retired after forty years in a geriatric medicine practice. She grew up in a military family with frequent moves across the United States. In 1979 she graduated from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and joined the Army where she completed training in San Francisco. A poet and writer as a child, she left it behind during her medical training but at age forty resumed writing and studying poetry by joining workshop groups and finding mentors. Catharine completed her MFA in poetry and narrative medicine at Dominican University of California in 2019.

Her first two books of poetry, One Breath and Lifeboat were published by Tebot Bach Press. A chapbook, Brats, was published in 2019 by Finishing Line Press. Her fourth book of poetry, The Telling, The Listening from Saint Julian Press will be out in October 2023. She has had work published in many journals and anthologies. Recent publications included Naugatuck River Review. The narrative poetry prize third-place poem in 2021 was nominated for a Pushcart and her finalist poem for 2022 will be in the February edition. She was a finalist for the Joy Harjo Prize in 2022. Several poems have been published in Mother Mary Comes To Me: Mary in Pop Culture, Poets With Masks On, and Moving Images: Poetry Inspired by Film.