Blog|Videos|March 6, 2026

Panama

"Thanks for considering waiting in line at the Met for Michelangelo’s drawings. It was raining that day..."

Any Good Poem

Richard Berlin, MD, shares the poem “Panama” by Sarah Green. Green is a contemporary American poet and an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. Her work has been described as using "masterful storytelling, personal revelation, and shapely, musical stanzas." Her work often explores themes of grief, resilience, identity, and the complexities of human connection. A 2-time Pushcart Prize winner, Green is the author of several poetry collections, and her poems have appeared in numerous prestigious literary journals including The Paris ReviewPloughshares, and Gettysburg Review.

Dr Berlin has been writing a poem about his experience of being a doctor every month for the past 28 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.