The Illumination

Any Good Poem

Richard Berlin, MD, shares Barry Sternlieb's poem, "The Illumination," dedicated to deceased Berkshire poet and writer, Paul Metcalf who was the great grandson of Herman Melville. Sterlieb wrote this poem in the aftermath of Metcalf's sudden death. “The Illumination” first appeared in the literary journal, Tar River Poetry, and also appears in his sold out 2021 collection of poems, Sole Impression, which won the Pauline Uchmanowicz Poetry Award and was published by Codhill Press.

The Illumination

for Paul Metcalf (1917-1999)

As we enter

the old hilltown graveyard,

stone rows rise

toward the church

like a long flight

of stillness, but the afternoon

flows with rain and fog

recalling that Sung Dynasty scroll,

Thatched Hut on Orphan Mountain,

where the nameless hermit

can’t be seen.

Just a wild line

of peaks streaming

into clouds

and the blink

of his one room shack

where a candle

is left burning.

Dr Berlin has been writing a poem about his experience of being a doctor every month for the past 26 years in Psychiatric Times in a column called “Poetry of the Times.” He is instructor in psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. His latest book is Freud on My Couch.