The use of narrative has been proposed as a way to improve knowledge of the patient and the quality of medical practice.1 The narrative medicine movement began in the late 20th century but goes back to the ideas of William Osler, for whom “[i]t is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has.”2

Acknowledging the relevance of the patient’s narratives helps to reduce the differences between patients’ and physicians’ knowledge models, leading to a closer and more empathic therapeutic relationship.1,3,4 Literary texts have been used both in medical education and in clinical practice,5–7 and have had objectively demonstrated positive effects on disease control.7 As Hannah Arendt put it, “storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.”8

In 1968 Carlos de Oliveira, that extraordinary poet, published a poem entitled Sobre o lado esquerdo (“On the left side”), in a collection of poems of the same name. The poem is shot through with social and political concerns and the anxiety that the writer was experiencing, which he transformed into a sleepless night of unbearable tension centered on his heart.

According to close friends, de Oliveira felt threatened by disease throughout his life. Is not the image he used in this poem—the heart as the focus of suffering—just like a common complaint we encounter in daily clinical practice?