{"id":777,"date":"2025-05-28T15:34:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T15:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/msbrazelton.wpenginepowered.com\/?page_id=777"},"modified":"2026-06-02T19:25:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:25:44","slug":"the-magic-castle","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/brazeltoninstitute.childrenshospital.org\/es\/nbi-community\/poetry-and-practice\/the-magic-castle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Magic Castle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reflection by Kerim M. Munir<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Magic Castle is my tribute to \u201ca special colleague and friend, Carolyn Bridgemohan\u201d, who worked in the Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Division at the Boston Children\u2019s Hospital and died on August 16th, 2019. This poem was written on August 22nd, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Magic Castle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Kerim M. Munir<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Friday, my favorite day of the week
Of all the weeks past
The patients we shared
I look for you, my beloved friend
To discover kindness
To listen, to inspire
To share our love of caring

This is Friday, my favorite day of the week
You are gone, too soon

May I ask you, to stay, in this Magic Castle
Every day
Be the light we need
To nurse the children

May I ask you, to stay, in this Magic Castle
Every day
Be the strength we use
To console the lonely
To befriend the challenged

May I ask you to stay, my beloved colleague
Every day
To help the helpless
To reach the parents

You will be there for us, won\u2019t you?
For the joy we share
For the sorrow we feel
In this Magic Castle you helped build

You belong here
Every day
In the passion we share
The words we speak
Nothing can separate us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I grew up in Nicosia, Cyprus, at a time of civil conflict, and luckily educated at a bi-communal free Anglican grammar school where I first learned English and discovered Dylan Thomas, read in a beautiful Welsh accent by Richard Burton,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black\u2026.\u201d

<\/em>The 17-year-old Thomas had first developed the idea that led to Under Milk Wood<\/em> while a student at the Swansea Grammar School, writing for the school magazine.

My interest in science and math led me to pursue studies in medicine in England, later training in psychiatry, and then in child and adolescent psychiatry, in Boston, where I work as an attending physician in the Developmental Medicine Center at the Boston Children\u2019s Hospital.
Besides Dylan, other influences on my poetry include the romantic revolutionary Turkish, Polish, Georgian poet, Nazim Hikmet, \u201cHuman Landscapes from My Country: An epic novel in verse\u201d<\/em>, written in Turkish during the Second World War while serving a thirteen-year sentence as a political prisoner, as well as other short poems,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most beautiful sea
Hasn\u2019t been crossed yet.
The most beautiful child
Hasn\u2019t grown up yet.
The most beautiful days
We haven\u2019t seen yet.
And the most beautiful
Words I wanted to tell you
I haven\u2019t said yet\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, the French lyrical poet, Eduard \u00c9luard, whose poems during the Second World War carried messages of hope, that I discovered through my wife whose parents had both served in the R\u00e9sistance in Brittany,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd for the power of a word                         \u201cEt par le pouvoir d\u2019un mot
I restart my life                                               Je recommence ma vie
I was born to know you                                   Je suis n\u00e9 pour te conna\u00eetre
To call you [Freedom]\u201d                                   Pour te nommer <\/em>[Libert\u00e9]\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saint Cardinal John Henry Newman, Snapdragon, 1827 (declared a Saint October 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Ah! \u2019tis timely comfort given<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the answering breath of Heaven!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May it be! then well might I<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In College cloister live and die.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"KMunir<\/figure>
\n

Kerim M. Munir, MD, MPH, DSc is Director of Psychiatry in the University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at the Boston Children’s Hospital. He is a Society Fellow in Global Health in the Scholars in Medicine Program and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School. He completed his medical studies at University College London as a Commonwealth Scholar and trained in General Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He holds a doctorate in maternal child health and psychiatric epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.  <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reflection by Kerim M. Munir The Magic Castle is my tribute to \u201ca special colleague and friend, Carolyn Bridgemohan\u201d, who …Read More<\/b><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":87,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-full-width.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-777","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Magic Castle - Brazelton Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/brazeltoninstitute.childrenshospital.org\/es\/nbi-community\/poetry-and-practice\/the-magic-castle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Magic Castle - Brazelton Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reflection by Kerim M. 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