This collection celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the Artists on the Wards Program. The Friends of University Hospitals started the AOW program in 1999 to give patients the opportunity to experience the healing benefits of the arts. Visual artists were the first to be hired, followed by literary artists and then musicians. For a time, there were also actors and dancers. I joined the program in early 2000 as one of the staff literary artists and have been an Artist on the Wards ever since, working alongside my colleagues and many volunteers.

For our 20th Anniversary, I took the opportunity to choose my own favourites from among the poems submitted to our annual poetry contest over the years. Some of these were winners; some were not. Obviously narrowing down the selection to the poems included here was a difficult task and there were many more poems I would have loved to include. I chose poems that I felt provided an overall view of the hospital experience from various perspectives.

Some of the poems are very positive; some not so much. Some may elicit tears. I think they provide an accurate reflection of what happens inside these walls and honour the dedication and humanity of the caregivers and the experience and feelings of the patients.