Lines for Winter

Author(s):

Richard M. Berlin, MD

Key Takeaways

Mark Strand, a renowned poet, was born in 1934 and educated at the Iowa Writers Workshop. He taught at Columbia University until 2014.
Strand received prestigious awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and served as U.S. Poet Laureate.
Dr. Richard Berlin, a psychiatrist, has written monthly poems for 26 years in Psychiatric Times, sharing his medical experiences.
Berlin is an instructor in psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and authored the book Tender Fences.

"Tell yourself as it gets cold and gray falls from the air that you will go on..."

Any Good Poem

Richard Berlin, MD, shares the poem "Lines for Winter," by Mark Strand. Mark Strand was born in 1934 on Prince Edward Island, Canada. He was raised in a secular Jewish family, and as a young man, attended the Iowa Writers Workshop. From 2005 until his death in 2014, Strand taught literature and creative writing at Columbia University. During his career, he received numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and appointment as the Poet Laureate of the United States.

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 Tender Fences.