Song of the Egret

About the Book

Poignant Moments is a collection of Haiku poetry inspired by nature and the seasons written by a Callifornia neurosurgeon.

About the Author

Milton D. Heifetz is a former Chairman of the Dept. of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.  He has served as a visiting professor of neurosurgery and of ethics at Harvard University Medical School, a visiting scholar of ethics at Oxford University, and as an adjunct lecturer at both Boston College Law School and Brandeis University.  Dr. Heifetz is the author of several books including Ethics In Medicine and the Biology of Aesthetics.  He is the inventor of a series of neurosurgical instruments and is the recipient of the “Pioneers in Medicine” award among others.

Heifetz’s love of nature began at the age of 9 while collecting bird pictures in Chicago, Illinois.  The son of Ukrainian immigrants, Heifetz attended the University of Illinois School of Medicine and then served in the United States Armed Forces as Captain in the Medical Corps.

An avid astronomy buff, Heifetz authored two astronomy guidebooks, A Walk Through the Heavens and A Walk Through the Southern Sky.  He designed planispheres for the northern and southern hemispheres and invented a device, which allows one to see the alignment of constellations throughout 25,750 years of history called “The Precession of the Equinoxes.” As the first of its kind, this historical planisphere has been installed in the Harvard University Museum of Historical Scientific Instruments.

Heifetz began sculpting in 1945 and writing poetry in 1980.  His bronze and marble sculptures can be found in many private collections.  His Haiku poetry has been published in the Parnassus Literary Journal.

He and his wife Betsy split their time between Cambridge and Lake Tahoe where he spends his time sculpting, writing, designing technical devices and bird watching.