I love these poems. The voice overall has strength and confidence, but what matters most is its humanity. The Healing Station is a tribute to the courage and incorrigibility of the common men and women encountered by Michael McCarthy in the course of his residency. Faced with the ailments of our time stroke, heart attack, onset of dementia they never lose their humanity or their humour. Here s love in the form of laughter and its tonic. With the health workers ever on call I say to both the chronicled and chronicler: Good man. Good man yourself. - Gillian Allnut