Lighthead’s Guide to the Galaxy

Any Good Poem

Richard Berlin, MD, shares the poem, “Lighthead's Guide to the Galaxy” by Terrance Hayes. Hayes was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1971. He earned an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh’s writing program and teaches at New York University, where he has become a celebrated poet, educator, and MacArthur Fellow.

About his work, Cornelius Eady has said: “First you’ll marvel at his skill, his near-perfect pitch, his disarming humor, his brilliant turns of phrase. Then you’ll notice the grace, the tenderness, the unblinking truth-telling just beneath his lines, the open and generous way he takes in our world.”

Dr Berlin has been writing a poem about his experience of being a doctor every month for the past 27 years inPsychiatric 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.