Q. How did you come to have two such disparate passions, dentistry and poetry?
A. I always considered that a poet is what I was and a dentist is what I do.
Q. Presumably, you didn’t set out to be both, right?
A. It all happened accidentally.
Q. You’ve written six books of poetry, been widely published and spent two years as poet laureate of the county where you grew up on Long Island.
A. The thing just has sort of mushroomed in the most delightful way.
Q. Do you think your poetry informs your dentistry and visa versa?
A. I think that being a good doctor and being a good poet both revolve around having a deep and profound sense of empathy. I always thought that these two sides of my thinking were completely at polar opposites. And then I realized the way that I practiced all those years and now the way that I teach has an awful lot to do with the way that I gain insights and impressions, and that may lead to poems.