Hugh Silk, reviews Tender Fences by Richard M. Berlin in the on-line Journal Family Medicine.
A good poem engulfs us, takes hold of us physically. Its concision and urgency demand the participation of another in order to achieve completeness, to attain full meaning. In these ways, it’s not so different from providing the best, most compassionate care to our patients.
– Rafael Campo [1]
Poetry has many purposes in medicine, medical education, and society. Dr Richard Berlin fully understands and embraces the power of poetry. In Tender Fences, his fifth collection of poems, he offers 59 poems that range from observations of medical training to lessons on writing; some are simply whimsical observations about topics as benign as listening to NPR or having trouble sorting socks.
Berlin is a psychiatrist who resides in western Massachusetts. He began writing poetry in his 40s. He is also the author of 60 scientific articles and has edited two books, including Poets on Prozac. 2 While he began writing poetry later in life, he harnessed the craft and is a keen observer of people, life’s nuances, and all things medical. His poetry includes odes to cars, orchestras, and even bears, yet he is at his best when he invokes medical topics. For example, one offering is a series of house staff senyrus (Japanese style haikus) that captures the range of emotions and tasks from reflecting on long shifts to being pregnant during residency. Elsewhere, he engages our collective emotions about electronic health records and prior authorizations. For a psychiatrist, he really celebrates the breadth of medicine.
