Richard M. Berlin, MD

"Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes, Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes."

"...yet all the passengers filed out saying, “Thank you! We didn’t know a doctor would still help in an emergency.” But I was like the heroes on the evening news declaring, “No big deal. Just doing my job,” and meaning it..."

"The night is swallowing Daylight. We sit down to eat."

"The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing, For thy delight each May morning. If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me and be my Love."

“The wind has donned your hair...

“The fundamental act of medical care is assumption of responsibility.”

"Otherwise it's spring, and everything looks frail; the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves are full of infant chlorophyll, the very tint of inexperience."

"I pulled my scuffle hoe hard through the clay’s crust and heard the blade scrape metal and earth."

"And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold, And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold."

"I shall forget civilization, I shall forget color, caste, I shall move in a fantastic world of raceless men and women..."

"rescued from the filth of paradise, hosed off, shining, my cracked fingernails caked with dirt."

"The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters, with four dead and eleven wounded."

"The buttonholes, the sizing, the facing, the characters. Printed in black on neckband and tail. The shape, the label, the labor, the color, the shade. The shirt."

"It was word and note, The wind the wind had meant to be—A little through the lips and throat. The aim was song—the wind could see."

"We were three men alone in a ward room built for fifty, dust film on the floor..."

"But where are the songs of praise for church basements? That lower level, that rock bottom room sunken & reverent with flickering lights..."

"We were three men alone in a ward room built for fifty, dust film on the floor..."

"In the corridor, he demands a confession: Who peeled back his bandage? Who let him look?"

"Soon the train will stop. The border guard will give me back my passport – but I know we’ll be back again soon."

"As we enter the old hilltown graveyard, stone rows rise toward the church like a long flight of stillness..."

"I’m never finished answering to the dead."

"In the corridor, he demands a confession: Who peeled back his bandage? Who let him look?"

"The river is famous to the fish..."

"He's dying on dialysis—I’ve known him since my first days as a doctor, and now he wants to quit."

"He’s dying on dialysis—I’ve known him since my first days as a doctor, and now he wants to quit..."

"For the listener, who listens in the snow, And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is."

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world..."

"Spray the perfume of your smiles on the incision. Inject the song of life into my veins to wake me up. Gently beat the drum so my mind may dance with yours, my doctor, day and night."

"...my eyes searching for the one skater in every crowd who glides graceful as a god, like my father years ago in his black leather racing skates..."

"A hundred skaters in Christmas red circle the lake..."