Poems That Are Medicine: The Art of Caring Through Poetry

This digital anthology gathers poems written by caregivers, poets, activists, and members of communities from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. These diverse voices, expressed in various languages and tones, reflect on care work in all its forms: the visible and the invisible, paid care as well as care given out of love, connection, or vocation.

Poems That Are Medicine emerges as a project of encounter and recognition. From a birregional, multicultural, and multilingual perspective, this initiative seeks to make care visible as collective knowledge, a shared art, and a practice that crosses generations, territories, and inequalities. Here, poetry becomes a way to heal; here, caring is also a way of writing the world.

Several of these poems were also presented in the exhibition held at the Care Pavilion of the Global Alliance for Care in Mexico City, in the context of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which took place between August 12 and 15, 2025.

The title of this anthology is inspired by the poems “People Who Are Medicine” by María Teresa González Osorio and “The Art of Caring in the Golden Years” by Bellanida Perea Ponce.

The final selection includes 20 poems chosen from 46 submissions received through an open call organised by the EU-LAC Foundation in July 2025, with the support of the Global Alliance for Care.

This digital publication is part of the commemoration of the International Day of Care and Support (October 29), serving as a tribute to all those who, through their acts of care, sustain and transform our societies.

  1. Sumaqayni

  2. The art of caring in the golden years 

  3. Guidelines to life 

  4. To care 

  5. The caregivers hand 

  6. The map of our hands

  7. The silence of live-in maids 

  8. For you, For me, For both

  9. As long as we are together

  10. I feel too much and maybe that's the point

  11. My grandmother's favourite story

  12. Women Walking

  13. Caring for each other

  14. People who are medicine 

  15. To wash

  16. Silence in my care

  17. At the heart

  18. Contradictions

  19. I won´t let go

  20. Viviana