American Life in Poetry: “A Lobsterman Looks at the Sea” by Richard M. Berlin

Richard M. Berlin is a doctor and poet, or a poet and doctor, and in this poem from his book “Practice,” from Brick Road Poetry Press, he honors the wisdom each of us gains through experience.

“A Lobsterman Looks at the Sea”

His new hip healed in, we’re working

on a bluff, talking doctors and health care

reform as we shove a new propane tank into place.

A shape on the surface catches his eye:

“Right whale,” he says, but I can only see

endless swells rolling in from the east.

He points out the gradations of gray

and green that mark deep ledge, the tide’s

shape along the islands and rocks,

the whale’s glistening back suddenly in focus.

I react with the same surprise

my patients feel when I observe

what they can’t see –

a sudden shift in gaze, or a crease in a cheek,

understanding how a doctor becomes

like a man who has spent sixty years

on a lobster boat, watching the world

swim fast and shining, right before his eyes.

Poem copyright 2015 by Richard M. Berlin, from “Practice” (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2015) and reprinted by permission of the author and publisher. American Life in Poetry is supported by the Poetry Foundation and the English department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We do not accept unsolicited submissions.