Our Founder

Any Good Poem

Richard Berlin, MD, shares the poem "Our Founder" by Samatar Elmi. Elmi, also known as the musician Knomad Spock, is an award-winning British-Somali poet, writer, and educator known for exploring themes of identity and displacement. His work draws on his multiethnic heritage, blending Somali oral traditions with elements from British working-class communities and classical mythology. Elmi's publications include the 2024 collection The Epic of Cader Idris. He is a poetry editor for Flipped Eye Press, and has taught courses on neurodivergent creative processes.

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.