Richard M. Berlin, MD

Richard Berlin, MD, shares John Balaban's poem "

Balaban is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, including four volumes which, together, have won The Academy of American Poets’ Lamont prize, a National Poetry Series Selection, and two nominations for the National Book Award.

has been writing a poem about his experience of being a doctor every month for the past 24 years in

the “Poetry of the Times” column. He is instructor in psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. His latest book is Freud on My Couch. 

Videos

"Moments like that, you can love this country..."

Passing through Albuquerque

Richard Berlin, MD, shares major American poet Donald Hall's poem, "

"We ate, and talked, and went to bed, And slept. It was a miracle."


Summer Kitchen

with the groove of his father’s rhythm.

Then twenty years swing by and I’m riffing

chords on my father’s old D’Angelico,

Grappelli’s photo clipped to the stand,

the ballroom stage, me on the dance floor,

light show throbbing through a grassy haze,

Grappelli so close I could trace his Cappa

violin’s grain when he coaxed the melody

on “La Mer,” eyes closed as if in prayer,

jaw thrust forward, tight lips turned down

on hospital rounds, like my father’s smile

the morning he dressed for his final surgery,

the Quintette’s last gig blasting from his stereo,

my father playing air guitar with Django,

a Grappelli smile dancing him out the door.

has been writing a poem about his experience of being a doctor every month for the past 24 years in 

 the “Poetry of the Times” column. He is instructor in psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. His latest book is Freud on My Couch. 

Articles

"Grappelli’s Smile"

Richard Berlin, MD, shares Maxine Cumin's poem "

in a column called “Poetry of the Times.” He is instructor in psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. His latest book is

"If I could only live at the pitch that is near madness..."


At the Pitch

Richard Berlin, MD, shares his poem "Grappelli's Smile," which will be featured in the September 2022 issue of 

"...Then twenty years swing by and I’m riffing chords on my father’s old D’Angelico, Grappelli’s photo clipped to the stand, an image captured the night he owned the ballroom stage, me on the dance floor..."


Grappelli’s Smile

Richard Berlin, MD, shares George Bilgere's poem "

"I'm thinking about how good it is to have been sick, to have been turned inside out..." 
