In Secret
Wounds, his second full length collection of poetry, psychiatrist Richard
Berlin continues his exploration of the inner world of medicine with a sequence
of 73 poems that flow seamlessly, uninterrupted by grouping into topics or
sections. In the first poem, “Lay Down Sally,” the author attends a man dying
on dialysis, and concludes with “A nurse hangs the morphine. / I write my blue
notes.” In the last, “The Last Concert of Summer,” he reflects on his long experience
with the sick and suffering, ending the poem with, “I place a stethoscope in my
ears and listen / to the heart when I’ve run out of things to say.” In between,
the poems reflect varied incidents, topics, conflicts, and wounds, as they
occur from medical education (“Teaching Rounds,” “Touch,” “On Call, 3 AM”) through
a life in medical practice (“Rage,” “The Scientists,” “How a Psychiatrist
Parties”) to something like enlightenment (“Note to Pablo Neruda,” “A
Psychiatrist’s Guitar,” “End of Summer”).
