Richard M. Berlin, MD

How do poetry and medicine interact and relate? One doctor shares his journey.

"... unconscious as hope that we sense around us now borne back into the earth..."

Reform school, a place where workers smoked with the boys, a place where fathers were AWOL and mothers begged us to save their sons.

A bear under the snow turns over to yawn. It's been a long, hard rest.

So I sit on the edge, wagging my feet above the abyss. Tonight the moon will be in my lap...

"The world was immaculate, new..."

As soon as you begin to ask the question, Who loves me?, you are completely screwed, because the next question is How Much?

"...remember this one life is a gift each of us was handed and told to open..."

My life pasted on his wall to analyze, a flash of insight came to me: Training had begun.

“...the life thing in us that will not let us die...”

Hospital food has the reputation for not being very restorative...

And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water...

"... laboring to transform death to praise, never wearying, never once losing faith."

How has COVID-19 given us a heightened appreciation for each moment?

As the COVID-19 battle continues, reflecting on successes against viruses like AIDS may serve as a hopeful reminder.

"...inhuman forces hard at work in their own time and place..."

Walking on water might just be possible...

A faceless full moon glowing through a cloud, contorted like the tree . . .

"O Southland, sorrow home, melody beating in my bone and blood!"

Let poetry transport you on a vacation, since COVID-19 prevented summer travel.

Blade tips catch and knees kiss ice, my eyes searching for the one skater in every crowd who glides graceful as a god,

This poem contemplates the National Anthem... is it a good song?

Poet Billy Collins writes the names of friends lost to COVID-19 on the back of his grocery list.

A mother begs the court to keep her son incarcerated for fear street gangs will eat him alive.

It may feel hard to find our way during the COVID-19 pandemic. Try and reflect on the direction your life is heading in right now.

Professional sports have hobbled on during COVID-19. What memories do you have of in-person sporting events?

How do you enter the patient's space, and are you cognizant of the energy you bring with you?

He was happy in a Gettysburg field, before he turned 13. That was the year his father’s body launched its own Civil War.

Patients rely on the companionship and kindness of nurses now more than ever, and these poem selections reflect that.

Maya Angelou’s words remind us to care for and support one another.