SPOTLIGHT -
July 12th 2024
"...the beauty still intoxicating, the spirit of the research like a child swimming for the first time in the sea, awed..."
July 11th 2024
"By now I’ve lost track of time with this boy who reminds me of myself when I imagined becoming a doctor..."
July 5th 2024
"Remember? Remember wanting to play every minute, as if that was why we were born?"
June 28th 2024
"How free is our will if our fate is decided by our melanin. What is the meaning of Black lives when so many people don’t think we matter?"
June 21st 2024
"Of all the questions you might want to ask about angels, the only one you ever hear is how many can dance on the head of a pin..."
"A Psychiatrist’s Guitar"
"...when skilled hands and callused fingertips pick sweet equations where practice becomes song."
A Psychiatrist’s Guitar
"Hear the story of wood, cut and stained and carved for someone’s need."
Spring View
"Touched by the hard times, flowers shed tears. Grieved by separations, birds are startled in their hearts."
A Poet's Lament
A psychiatrist reflects and laments on the state of the country.
Anthem for Doomed Youth
"Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes, Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes."
Hero
"...yet all the passengers filed out saying, “Thank you! We didn’t know a doctor would still help in an emergency.” But I was like the heroes on the evening news declaring, “No big deal. Just doing my job,” and meaning it..."
Eat
"The night is swallowing Daylight. We sit down to eat."
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
"The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing, For thy delight each May morning. If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me and be my Love."
Then There
“The wind has donned your hair...
"Hero"
“The fundamental act of medical care is assumption of responsibility.”
A Color of the Sky
"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."
The Garden of Eden
"I pulled my scuffle hoe hard through the clay’s crust and heard the blade scrape metal and earth."
Recuerdo
"And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold, And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold."
Black Weariness
"I shall forget civilization, I shall forget color, caste, I shall move in a fantastic world of raceless men and women..."
"The Garden of Eden"
"rescued from the filth of paradise, hosed off, shining, my cracked fingernails caked with dirt."
The Diameter of the Bomb
"The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters, with four dead and eleven wounded."
Shirt
"The buttonholes, the sizing, the facing, the characters. Printed in black on neckband and tail. The shape, the label, the labor, the color, the shade. The shirt."
Craving
"...seeking and longing for the garden of cherry blossoms..."
Timely
A psychiatrist reflects on the importance of time... and living in the moment.
Good Fathers
"We were three men alone in a ward room built for fifty, dust film on the floor..."
Eye-Popping
"I can smell the aroma of spring tulips filling the air-spreading peace and good cheer..."
Greenhouse
"For we are a healing and a growing greenhouse..."
On Your Mark
"For you and I, know that this space, this pace, this race is a gift to be shared, craved, and loved."
Teaching Rounds
"In the corridor, he demands a confession: Who peeled back his bandage? Who let him look?"
Bella, Horrida Bella
“In the realm of psychiatry, the therapeutic value of poetry lies in its ability to transcend the limitations of prose, offering a space for the unsayable and the ineffable.”
"Lay Down Sally"
"He’s dying on dialysis—I’ve known him since my first days as a doctor, and now he wants to quit..."
Within Reach
As Martin Luther King Day approaches, a psychiatrist shares his thoughts... and hopes we are in within reach of those dreams and ideals.
The Second Coming
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world..."
Anticipatory Growth
A psychiatrist reflects on a new year and anticipatory growth.
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear
"Spray the perfume of your smiles on the incision. Inject the song of life into my veins to wake me up. Gently beat the drum so my mind may dance with yours, my doctor, day and night."