Review of Joanne Godley's "doc.x" (2024)

Posted on Amazon and Goodreads (December 19, 2025)

From the first poem in doc.x, Godley prepares us for a collection that is daring, revealing, and intensely vivid. Her visceral language magnifies common scenes found in any hospital. Godley does not exaggerate but descriptively narrates the gore and absolute horror that is Black suffering via the medical system. She makes the familiar new, forcing us to look at what is happening. Look at the injustices. Look at the hope. Look at it all.

Doc.x is an intimate view into the poet’s life as a doctor. It is also equal parts history lesson and homage to Black medical professionals past, present, and future. Godley is bold in her specificity. She names exactly the places, moments, and events in detail that must be looked at (i.e., seen and witnessed). The outro poem does not conclude the collection completely. In fact, the collection seems to go on forever, ending with the haunting repetition of a heartbreaking line, “saved you?” Godley reminds us that the fight for equitable healthcare, caring for and sustaining Black doctors, and supporting Black doctors in training is ongoing. In this way, the collection is never truly concluded—the poem goes on, out of the pages and into our everyday lives.

Amongst my favorite pieces, “The next magic trick” masterfully reverses a horrific scene, so that maybe we can imagine for ourselves the survival and happiness of Black birthing mothers. In the middle of the collection, a peculiar bingo card containing racist and misogynoir-istic phrases that Black doctors would so often and still most likely face. In place of the bingo middle free space, “You should smile more!”

This collection hit me in the chest. One doesn’t have to be a doctor or medical professional to pick up what Godley is putting down, but it is a treat for those familiar with the insides of such a world. The collection’s only downfall is that it is not a thousand pages longer.

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