The Wisdom I Can’t Teach

The Wisdom I Can't Teach is the debut collection of poetry from award winning innovator, author, and stroke survivor turned healthcare leader, Dr. Paul Coyne. Written during his son's first five years of life, the collection offers a rare glimpse into the lessons that one wishes to teach their children that are only fully learned from those who know firsthand that they may not be there to teach them.

Through seemingly simple rhyme scheme and syntax, Coyne compresses the vast complexity learned from living with a heart disease since birth, being hospitalized and wheelchair bound for part of high school, suffering a stroke while beginning a career on Wall Street, the death of his girlfriend in his mid-twenties, obtaining five degrees in four years in his late twenties, cofounding a healthcare technology company in his early thirties, becoming one of the youngest Chief Nurse Executives in the country at thirty-six, and most importantly, finding true love and acceptance along the way through God, his wife, his family and friends, and in himself.

While his inspirational life provides the canvas, the specifics of the events are never drawn on the page. It is only the wisdom learned from the experiences that has been carefully extracted and illustrated into poetry, in the hope that his son will be better able to paint the masterpiece of his own life.

With a humble heart and vulnerable spirit, Coyne invites the world on a one hundred poem journey to remind his son, and all of us, that in a world full of differences, there is one universal similarity -- our shared humanity.