SPOTLIGHT -
May 3rd 2024
“The fundamental act of medical care is assumption of responsibility.”
April 26th 2024
"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."
April 22nd 2024
"I pulled my scuffle hoe hard through the clay’s crust and heard the blade scrape metal and earth."
April 19th 2024
"And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold, And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold."
April 12th 2024
"I shall forget civilization, I shall forget color, caste, I shall move in a fantastic world of raceless men and women..."
Chocolate-Flavored PTSD
Frank A. Clark, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina School of Medicine – Greenville, SC, presents a timely slice of poetic history.
Runner’s Paradox
Fangs dripping of bigotry hasten to attack human black deer. Such is a line in the work of this African American psychiatrist.
Coughs That Echo Across the World
Drama for the day, the telephone rings, spring blossoms, senior year is sad, Mother Earth takes revenge, praying for Sully to land us on the Hudson . . .
Let Evening Come: An Invocation
Dr Berlin offers salve to the soul with a recitation of "Let Evening Come," by Jane Kenyon, and then some.
The Road Home From the Hospital
When the AIDS epidemic was at its peak, Dr Berlin wrote his own version of "Spring and All," in which he speaks directly to the original author, Wayne Carlos Williams. There are parallels to coronavirus in these works.
Tchaikovsky: Music and Melancholy
A virtuoso concert pianist and psychiatrist's "play" on the role of music in healing and the influence of psychological and medical factors on the creative output of the great composers in music history.
The Nurses in Our Lives
In this series of recitations, Dr Richard Berlin will present a poetry with special meaning for all of us, as we cope with the COVID-19 crisis. He continues the theme of praising our nursing colleagues with Dorianne Laux's poem "Nurse."
A Question of Character
Beethoven’s baton, the genius "gone mad," deaf to criticism, his joy as he conducted, all the notes he trusted the orchestra to play . . .
The Love for our Work
A poem titled Loves by American poet Stephen Dunn inspired me to write a poem about everything I love about my work as a doctor.
Silent and Solemn Spring
Why poetry? As the great Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai said, “When words fail, that’s when poetry begins.”
Honoring Our Nurses
Nurses are on the front line in the care of COVID-19 patients, and for many years Dr Berlin has admired and resonated with the poetry of nurse practitioner Cortney Davis. Here: a recitation of two of her poems.
A Further Shore Is Reachable
Richard Berlin, MD, recites "COVID-19," by Dr Chris Fitzpatrick. It is a series of haikus strung together to highlight the many moments in hospitals that are happening everywhere in the world. This. Very. Moment.
Lucky
His widow sues. Five night-sweat-years later, our colleague wins in court, because he has good documentation.
Silent Spring
Slipping out of quarantine, we walk hand in hand. Comforting words that this, too, shall pass.
Dear Provider
I read Dear Provider in a letter from a health care company. Provider is a fine word, and I’ve always felt proud to provide for my family-but the company doesn’t know guys from Jersey are sensitive.
Psychiatry Comic: Identity Crisis
My hacker stole my identity crisis.
The Show Must Go On
A phone rings on stage like a flashback and we return to our fantasy that characters can die and revive, that the show must go on . . .
Psychiatrists Are Not the Retiring Kind
The past is prologue riding close behind. Give up your practice? And do what instead? Psychiatrists are not the retiring kind!
Not Guilty
Our daughter’s first day of Med School ten years ago, computer charged, a career choice . . .
Needlepoint Sampler
I imagine Emma on a winter night, an eight-year-old curled fireside in a wing chair, proving her skill with weeping willows...
Psychiatry Comic: Deciphering Voices
What is more concerning? The voices in his head or not being able to decipher them without a hearing aid?
Jolly Ranchers
They sulk and swear when I say, “Sorry, no Jollies,” tune out when I lecture about sugar, acid, and tooth decay- they’ve known sweetness and want more....
The Magistrates
My musician patient in a fetal curl, Tchaikovsky’s “Meditation” plays an endless loop against this climate controlled conspiracy of monitors and machines...
Psychiatry Comic: Couchaholism
Laziness or disease? You decide.
All the World’s Notes
The moment the maestro flicks his baton, an orchestra thunders and the pianist suffers a stroke. But everyone plays on...
Psychiatric Times’ Poet Awarded International Prestige
Congratulations and kudos to Dr Richard M. Berlin, whose poem “Eye Contact” was chosen to be included in the 2019 Hippocrates Prize Anthology.
Eye Contact
A ghostly glow frames the face of a man with nothing to hide...
Patient Interviewing 101
Always ask the name of their dog.
Looking for America
Winter had not yet fallen. A crimson tide of red leaves rained down from the heavens...
Psychiatry Comic: No Longer Kneaded
Occupational hazards in the world of a doughboy.