While searching for
something in one of my long forgotten notebooks yesterday, a small piece of
paper fell to the floor. On it was a poem my dad had typed on his ancient Royal
typewriter; a poem I heard him quote many times as I was growing up.
'Tis the human touch
in this world that counts,
The touch of your hand and mine,
Which means far more
to the fainting heart
Than shelter and bread and wine.
For shelter is gone
when the night is
o’er,
And bread lasts only a day.
But the touch of the hand
And the sound of the voice
Sing on in the soul always.
The author of this poem is
Dr. Spencer Michael. Dr. Michael graduated from the College of Physicians and
Surgeons of the Johns Hopkins University in 1880. He practiced medicine and
surgery for fifty years, wrote over one hundred medical papers, and still found
time to write many poems.*
I’m sure that, as a
physician, Dr. Michael was aware of the power of human contact with
relationship to physical healing. But this verse also reveals his knowledge of
the relationship of human touch to mental and spiritual healing. A wise
physician, indeed!
* Information
from AllPoetry.
