A physician and writer

Poetry for These Uncertain Times

Oct 17, 2023, 5:32 AM

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My wife Silvia had a serious surgical operation that left her in a deeply depressed mood. A friend of ours, Janet Brof, a New York poet and a teacher, wrote this short poem that brought enormous solace to my wife’s soul.

MOONLADY

Janet Brof

Dearest Moonlady

who I’ve admired

through thick

and now thin—

it is truly as if

you’d stepped

onto the moon

before anyone of us

and showed how

to face the unknown

May your pain

leave soon – ahead

of time and may

you live untold years

with that Basque

joy and courage –

that spirit which

touches us so much.

About the Author

César Chelala is a physician and writer born in Argentina and living in the U.S. He wrote for leading newspapers all over the world and for the main medical journals, among them The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Japan Times, The China Daily, The Moscow Times, The International Herald Tribune, Le Monde Diplomatique, Harvard International Review, The Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, and The British Medical Journal. He is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award and two national journalism awards from Argentina.