Each year, the IU Health Ball Memorial Cancer Center hosts a Patient Annual Holiday Party. One of the special moments of the party, something the patients and staff look forward to each year, is William B. Fisher, MD, Medical Oncologist, reciting a poem he writes for the annual event. Fisher offered to share his poem with Oncology Times' readers.
Yesterday we remembered Pearl Harbor Day....2300 soldiers died
The nation mourned...and prayed and cried
The president called it a day of infamy
As war broke out on land and at sea
From that dark day we see some light as Christmas lurks so bright
What is it that so attracts us to this day...and night
Is it the birth of Christ, we ask, with gifts and family
And a time to remember those we can no longer see
I say it is all of the above
So let's take time to love....those we hold so near and dear
And to celebrate those no longer here
These are indeed exciting times in oncology
New treatments abound, almost too fast to see
Cancer slowly falls onto one knee
And we applaud with glee
We gird our loins to fight
The "emperor of all maladies"
We take delight in knowing tonight
We are surrounded by worker bees who strive to beat this disease
Read more on page 41 about Fisher's lifetime achievement award he recently received from peers and colleagues after 40 years of hard work and endless contributions to the field of medical oncology and clinical research.