"Paraganglioma in the Organ of Zuckerkandl"

Any Good Poem

Richard Berlin, MD, shares his poem “Paraganglioma in the Organ of Zuckerkandl,” which was featured in the April 2026 issue of Psychiatric Times.

Berlin and his wife have maintained a subscription to the New England Journal of Medicine. A recent issue presented a CAT scan image of a spinal cord decorated with little red arrows pointing to what was identified as a “Paraganglioma in the Organ of Zuckerkandl,” a label that instantly made me laugh when I flashed on Groucho Marx in the Marx Brothers film “A Day at the Races.” He imagined Groucho making a joke about a “Zuckerkandl” to the heroine, Emily Upjohn, played by Margaret Dumont, which led to the writing of this poem.

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.