SPOTLIGHT -
March 22nd 2024
"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."
March 20th 2024
"...seeking and longing for the garden of cherry blossoms..."
March 19th 2024
A psychiatrist reflects on the importance of time... and living in the moment.
March 15th 2024
"We were three men alone in a ward room built for fifty, dust film on the floor..."
March 13th 2024
"I can smell the aroma of spring tulips filling the air-spreading peace and good cheer..."
Preface to Leaves of Grass
"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals..."
Anatomy Lab
"By year’s end, brittle with guilt, we hovered over our hollow creation..."
Invictus
"Under the bludgeonings of chance, My head is bloody, but unbowed."
What a Psychiatrist Remembers...
"I remember perfumes and anxious sweat, who preferred the big leather chair and who liked to hide in the sofa’s corner."
A Quiet Life
"This isn’t as easy as it seems..."
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
"There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost... I am helpless."
"What a Psychiatrist Remembers"
"I remember sitting like my patients when time expired, entire lives grasped in a 50 minute hour..."
Dust of Snow
"The dust of snow, From a hemlock tree, Has given my heart, A change of mood..."
A Sobering Truth
“We are a tale of two Americas, searching for humanity to implore unity.”
"Anatomy Lab"
Shelter in Place
“Bringing us home, To ourselves, Our selves, Our bodies, our shelters…”
A Blues for Tyre
A psychiatric reflects on the latest news and remembers Tyre Nichols.
I Wish I Held My Father’s Hand
"I wish I could have caught his eye, delivered the silent message that I understood what he had to go through every day to keep the peace..."
Grief
“We are oceans, not boats.”
Ideas of Heaven
"My mother’s idea of heaven was a pulse, nurses in white spilling light across fields with hurricane lamps, bandage rolls, syringes, pain killers, stethoscopes, pressure cuffs, patella hammers."
Winter Evening Walking Meditation
“Breathing clouds at every turn, We hold what wisdom we must learn.”
25 Years of Poetry of the Times
Celebrating 25 years of Poetry of the Times with Richard Berlin, MD!
If You Ask Me My Name
"And if you like it simple, doctor will do."
Paper-White Narcissus
"There is no greater loneliness..."
“If You Ask Me My Name”
Welcome to 2023, the 25th year of Poetry of the Times with Richard Berlin, MD!
Running
A psychiatrist shares his experience of how running has been a constant for him throughout life’s changes.
Purposeful Light
“…The light of a new year.”
An American Sunrise
"We were running out of breath, as we ran out to meet ourselves..."
Positive Outcome
Even when facing the most difficult opponents, it's possible to win a positive outcome.
Coalescence
A psychiatrist reflects on his story...
The Tailors of Children’s Memorial
"It is Christmas eve and our patient lies on the table in twilight sleep..."
Jew-ish
A fourth-year medical student reflects on the non-traditional traditions that came from growing up in a 2-physician, 2-religion household.
Celebration: Birth of a Colt
"We wait, our bare feet dangling in the horse trough..."
Messenger
"My work is loving the world..."
Holiday Memoir
A psychiatrist shares memories of bonding over dance during the holiday season.