Gate A-4

Any Good Poem

Richard Berlin, MD, shares the poem "Gate A-4" by Naomi Shihab Nye, a poet who is known for poetry that lends a fresh perspective on ordinary events, people.

Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father was a Palestinian refugee and her mother was an American of German and Swiss descent. Nye spent her adolescence in both Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards for her prolific work. From 2010 to 2015 she served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She is the Poetry Foundation's Young People's Poet Laureate.

Her poem “Gate A-4” gives a wonderful view of Palestinian/American culture and the power of homemade mamool cookies. Nye’s poem is a reminder of the power poetry has to help us understand other people and other cultures.

Dr Berlin has been writing a poem about his experience of being a doctor every month for the past 27 years in Psychiatric Times in a column called “Poetry of the Times.” He is an instructor in psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. His latest book is Tender Fences.