Victor Altshul, a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Medical School, has been practicing psychiatry in New Haven for over fifty years. an English major in college, he rediscovered poetry five years ago while attending a psychoanalytic conference on Elizabeth Bishop’s magnificent villanelle, “One Art”. He has published three books of poems: “Stumblings” (CreateSpace, 2013), “Singing with Starlings” (Antrim House, 2015) and “Ode to My Autumn” (Antrim House, 2017). Individual poems have also appeared in a variety of publications. He lives with his wife and fellow poet Laura Altshul in New Haven.

On The Futility of Talking About One’s Grandchildren

He sat quietly through seven innings
in the hot sun between his father and me.
Since he was only six, we didn’t push it.
Crossing the street outside Phillies’ Stadium,
he reached for my hand.