SPOTLIGHT -
May 3rd 2024
“The fundamental act of medical care is assumption of responsibility.”
April 26th 2024
"Otherwise it's spring, and everything looks frail; the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves are full of infant chlorophyll, the very tint of inexperience."
April 22nd 2024
"I pulled my scuffle hoe hard through the clay’s crust and heard the blade scrape metal and earth."
April 19th 2024
"And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold, And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold."
April 12th 2024
"I shall forget civilization, I shall forget color, caste, I shall move in a fantastic world of raceless men and women..."
Letting Go
When faced with struggles, stress, and burnout, sometimes the best medicine is simply letting go...
Tools
"...my father’s spade saving last year’s mud, a long-tined rake, the swan-neck hoe..."
"Tools"
"Each spring, when earth warms and begs me to open its dark skin, I carry them past flowering apples and pears to the quiet square of garden..."
Status Quo
A psychiatrist reflects on the status quo in light of the most recent tragedy....
Your Card Is the King of Rats
Is your card the king of rats? Is your card the queen of roaches?
Haven
As we cope with another tragedy, a psychiatrist reflects on the importance of a safe haven...
A Poem in which I Try to Express My Glee at the Music My Friend Has Given Me
"I hold a thousand kites in a field loosed from their tethers at once..."
Preface to Leaves of Grass
"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals..."
Anatomy Lab
"By year’s end, brittle with guilt, we hovered over our hollow creation..."
Invictus
"Under the bludgeonings of chance, My head is bloody, but unbowed."
What a Psychiatrist Remembers...
"I remember perfumes and anxious sweat, who preferred the big leather chair and who liked to hide in the sofa’s corner."
A Quiet Life
"This isn’t as easy as it seems..."
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
"There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost... I am helpless."
"What a Psychiatrist Remembers"
"I remember sitting like my patients when time expired, entire lives grasped in a 50 minute hour..."
Dust of Snow
"The dust of snow, From a hemlock tree, Has given my heart, A change of mood..."
A Sobering Truth
“We are a tale of two Americas, searching for humanity to implore unity.”
"Anatomy Lab"
Shelter in Place
“Bringing us home, To ourselves, Our selves, Our bodies, our shelters…”
A Blues for Tyre
A psychiatric reflects on the latest news and remembers Tyre Nichols.
I Wish I Held My Father’s Hand
"I wish I could have caught his eye, delivered the silent message that I understood what he had to go through every day to keep the peace..."
Grief
“We are oceans, not boats.”
Ideas of Heaven
"My mother’s idea of heaven was a pulse, nurses in white spilling light across fields with hurricane lamps, bandage rolls, syringes, pain killers, stethoscopes, pressure cuffs, patella hammers."
Winter Evening Walking Meditation
“Breathing clouds at every turn, We hold what wisdom we must learn.”
25 Years of Poetry of the Times
Celebrating 25 years of Poetry of the Times with Richard Berlin, MD!
If You Ask Me My Name
"And if you like it simple, doctor will do."
Paper-White Narcissus
"There is no greater loneliness..."
“If You Ask Me My Name”
Welcome to 2023, the 25th year of Poetry of the Times with Richard Berlin, MD!
Running
A psychiatrist shares his experience of how running has been a constant for him throughout life’s changes.
Purposeful Light
“…The light of a new year.”
An American Sunrise
"We were running out of breath, as we ran out to meet ourselves..."