|
|
A Letter and News From John Fox, CPT
|
|
|
Please Note: This Newsletter is Best Viewed Through Safari or Firefox Browsers!
|
|
Dear Friends of The Institute for Poetic Medicine,
It's my deep feeling that every person, their life and voice, matter. I ask myself two questions everyday:
How can I be and share
what matters?
How can I help others express
what matters to them?
Late this year I was
working with children in 5th grade. Maggie sat in a circle with her classmates and me. She sat immediately to my left, out of my
sight, tucked up against the wall. I could tell she was seriously
listening but she felt withdrawn too.
At one point I gently
asked Maggie if she would like to read the poem she'd written. She
shook her head definitively "no" without a change in her focused gaze.
She gave me that clear message and I paused, letting her have her "no."
The
next day, Maggie sat at about 3 o'clock to me in the circle. She was
right there. After we wrote I invited the children to read, then I
asked Maggie if she would like to read her poem. She wanted to read
it. She called her poem The Center of Understanding.
As
is my practice, I asked Maggie to read her poem again. This time I
asked her if she would stand. She agreed, stood and read. I asked
her, "What is it like to read your poem?"
Maggie said, "Well, I
really like my poem. But what I've gained now is the confidence inside
to read it."
Our mission is "to awaken soulfulness in the human voice." I feel Maggie is helping us fulfill that mission.
The only thing that can save the world
is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world.
That is what poetry does.
~ Allen Ginsberg ~
We
live in a fragmented society and world. We are impacted by illness and
grief, dreams deferred and the weight of personal, societal and
environmental problems. When we pause and reflect, it comes clear that
the "personal" is not so different from the "universal." Everything
feels interrelated.
We are at a turning point, not only in our
country, but more, in the future of life on planet Earth. The question:
how then shall we live? knocks on our doors and calls to our hearts.
Yet
in a variety of powerful ways we see resilience in the human spirit.
In others and in ourselves, in our work and personal lives, we feel
tenacity embedded in the natural order of all things. I am reminded of
the way Barack Obama refers time and again to change and hope.
 . . .one has the right to hopethat in the midst of formidable cyclotrons and electronic brains,some day just like
between two Maltese stones,Poetry will shoot forth again
like an all-red poppy.~ Odysseus Elytis ~For
me, poetry is one of the wisest and feeling-rich ways to tap and find
joy in what change and hope may mean. Especially when shared in
community, poetry offers a way to communicate with and begin to
transform experiences of heart wrenching brokenness and being out of balance.
Poetry,
shared in a healing way, means to let play and curiosity replace
criticism. Everyone is welcome. Poetry as healer provides a modality
that honors each of these: play, curiosity and welcome. These
attitudes of being with ourselves and someone else create a safe place,
a powerful channel for creative energy - energy that helps a person
open, focus, deepen and bring their unique and irreplaceable voice into
the world.
Only when I make room
for the child's voice within me
Do I feel genuine and creative.
~ Alice Miller ~
When
we write and speak aloud our poem, we share our experience. We get to
feel it together. The practice of poetry as healer encourages people to
deeply listen to one another. A person comes home to him or her self,
we come home to one another. Together, we learn a silence that is
sacred.
Wherever I can find a place
to sit down and write,
that is my home.
~ Mary TallMountain ~
 In beauty I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty below me I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
Everything around me, in beauty I walk
In beauty I walk
It has become beauty again
It has become beauty again
~ Diné (Navajo) Prayer ~
People
we serve in this work of "poetic medicine" include those involved with
education, prison outreach, pastoral care, nursing, indigenous people
& culture, support of veterans, medicine, the arts, social work,
psychology, meditation & spiritual practice, medical humanities,
elder care, expressive & creative therapy, sustainable culture
& environmental action, substance abuse recovery, social justice
& peace, arts-in-medicine, cancer & wellness support, hospice
care, advocacy for children, poetry as a path for building community.
And so much more. Imagine it!
We are here to provide you with
inspiration, information, resources, educational opportunities and a
place to share your own experiences. In these very challenging days,
please draw sustenance from this work, from poetry and poem-making.
Your
tax-deductible donation is needed for us to grow. Volunteer
contributions of your hands & heart are also welcome. Please share
with us ways poetry is active in your life and profession. There is
much we can do to help one another. In fact, as a small nonprofit with
a large vision and reach, helping one another is the only way we
can succeed.
We, at The Institute for Poetic Medicine, send you blessings for a creative, healthy, prosperous and inspired New Year.
Sincerely Yours,John Fox, CPT P. S. To learn more about our funded programs and my work:
CLICK HERE:
Institute for Poetic Medicine
If you would like to receive occasional messages, please input your email address on our home page.
CONTRIBUTIONS MAY BE MAILED TO:
The Institute for Poetic Medicine
P.O. Box 60189
Palo Alto, CA 94306
|
SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF JOHN'S TRAVELS
AND IPM PROGRAMS
|
Children with the freshness of their senses come directly to the intimacy of the world. This is the first gift they have.
~Rabindranath Tagore ~
One wonderful focus for me is working with children. This September, I spent
a week in Phoenix, AZ at 3 Montessori schools. That included children and young people from 4th to 11th grade. Thanks to a friend of IPM, Mary Orlando, for arranging that. Mary is an assistant principal at one of the schools.
I also offered a two-day program at Paideia School in Atlanta, GA, where I've been invited the past 12 years. I worked with 5th and 6th graders. Here is a comment from one of the children:
"When I walked into the room where we were going to be talking
about poetry, a peaceful feeling came over me. It was as if just the
presence of John Fox had warmed me. I had not been that
connected with poetry before the poetry talk but now I just want
to sit down and write a million poems!"
_____________________________________________________________
I began to collaborate with Sally Hare from Surfside, SC, the founder of stillearning.org. Sally is a professor emeritus at South Carolina Coastal Community College. She is a long-time leader and facilitator for the work of Parker Palmer (author of Courage to Teach) with "circle of trust" and "courage to teach." Sally and I offered weekends in Los Gatos and Dallas to educators from around the country. It is a delight working with her.
By drawing together "circle of trust" and "poetic medicine", Sally and I see so much creative dimension in how we can support renewal and reflection in educators and other helping professions. We will offer this work of renewal and reflection next fall at a lovely retreat on the coast in South Carolina. Please contact IPM if you are interested.
Not until we winter into wisdom can we see the dance we have been
dancing all our lives, the transaction of Individual and Community
and Work. We see what we know. And some things have to be
believed to be seen - Life is a dance, not a linear uphill battle. It
begins as a dance between our role as individual and our role as
community member. It's a dance between light and shadow; a dance
between simplicity and complexity; a dance between abundance and
scarcity. This dance is about embracing paradox, about being in life
in a way that is not either /or, but both/and.~ Sally Hare ~
from "Wintering into Wisdom"
CLICK HERE: Sally Hare - stilllearning
_____________________________________________________________
Sally and I were invited to a national retreat sponsored
by the Center for Renewal and Wholeness at Richland College, a tremendously forward-looking community college in Dallas, Texas. CRWHE is wisely guided by Sue Jones, Ann Faulkner and Elaine Sullivan. They view the center's mission in this way:
Social equity and justice, economic sufficiency, and a healthy planet
represent the triple bottom line of sustainability. Whole, sustainable
communities must provide for the development of all three of these
components. CRWHE provides opportunities for other organizations
to learn from Richland College's approaches in these areas.
~ (from the CRWHE web site) ~
The President of Richland, Steve Middlestet, is interested in offering "poetic medicine" to students over a period of time. The plan is that I will return to Richland for a longer residency.
CLICK HERE:
Center for Renewal & Wholeness in Higher Education - Richland College
____________________________________________________________
On a Friday afternoon late in October, I brought "poetic medicine" to the AIDS Rejuvenation Day Retreat at The Centre for Living with Dying (CFLWD) in Santa Clara, CA where IPM Board Member Janet Childs is the Director of Education. CFLWD, a program of the Bill Wilson Center, in addition to programs that serve people coping with loss and grief, offers training to hospice volunteers.
I See You
But at times I didn't. I saw only what I wanted to see.
I see your compassion, in the way you would look at me.
I see your patience, in the way you spoke to me.
I see your hurt, in the way your eyes would darken.
I see your love, in the way you just were.
I ask myself, why didn't I see you back then? All of you?
The answer is:
I didn't want you to see me like this,
Open and vulnerable.
So I didn't allow myself this gift
To see you.
~ Marcella ~
(from AIDS Rejuvenation Day Retreat - October 24, 2008)
Prompt based on a poem by Elizabeth McNally
It was moving and fun to share that sacred space of poem-making with people truly helping one another, expressing that resilience in the midst of AIDS; and with Janet present, it was a distinct pleasure being part of the work she nurtures so beautifully.
Especially in this time of managed care, more emphasis seems to be
placed upon medication and the quick amelioration of symptoms,
short-term work and privatized, profit-making clinics, than upon the
lovely and mysterious alchemy that comprises the cords between
people, the cords that soothe some terrors and helps us heal.
~Lauren Slater ~ CLICK HERE: Bill Wilson's Centre for Living With Dying
____________________________________________________________
Along with dear friends of the Institute for Poetic Medicine, Jack Shierloh and Linda Tuthill, I had the good fortune to visit the 2100 Lakeside Shelter for Men that is a service of the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry in Cleveland, Ohio.
Invited by the wonderful Director of Volunteers, Lydia Bailey (pictured here with Jack Shierloh and me), we went to bring friendship and witness to men who are without homes but to whom much dignity and hope is afforded by this inspiring work.
Our witness to them included listening to their response to poems we selected and read to them, poems that spoke to their real circumstances as well as the qualities of faith, resilience and tenacity they expressed so powerfully in the stories they shared with us and the poems they made.
Jack, Linda and I often acted as "scribes" writing down their words. When I write in my beginning paragraph of the letter above that "each voice matters" it's often these men I think about.
At the end of the two days we were blown away by the sheer volume and range of writing expressed! We held a poetry reading in the new garden area of the shelter.
I am impressed with the amount of self-disclosure and honesty I
heard in these guys this morning and coming out of sincerity and
not cynicism.
~ Lydia Bailey ~
(Volunteer Coordinator, 2100 Lakeside Shelter for Men)
___________________
 Dirk
(2100 Lakeside Shelter for Men)
______________________
A Poem Dedicated To All of Us Who Wrote Poems Today
I want to see
If only I could see
To see the thing that I should have seen
Life, reality, meanings
Bright and lovely thoughts
What life really meant
Sore sights of life's struggles
Pains, sufferings
Mother's words of wisdom-- that I didn't take to heart
Father's words of wisdom-- that I should have seen
Now I look back
Try to keep my head up
Keeping God's words
I'm seeing and standing in the Light.
I know now that the words of God
Light is bright
Trying to stand on my own
With God's help to lead me
Into that Light
In remembrance of Mother's and Father's words
That were so bright
I should have seen the Light then
Now I see the Light
The Light that's so bright
My thoughts are bright, my heart is right
I think now I can see the Light.
~ Richard ~
(2100 Lakeside Shelter)
_____________________________________________________________
Healing Words: Poetry & Medicine is broadcasting around the country! This powerful film shows me at work with patients at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL. You can see clearly that expressive arts can have a profound impact in a hospital setting.
It has shown on PBS in Ohio, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Alabama, Michigan, Hawaii, California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania and Minnesota. Tom Lewis, MD, at UCSF Hospital, author of A General Theory of Love wrote a fine review for Amazon:
"This film is an hour-long look at the practice -- the very uncommon practice - of using poetry and art as part of an effort to re-humanize modern medical care. I thought about it for days afterward, weeks -- heck, I'm still thinking about it. I encourage anybody who is a doctor or a patient or anyone who may one day become a patient, to watch this extraordinary film."
You can order this powerful film through the IPM website. Your purchase through the website/Amazon will bring a percentage of funding to IPM.
CLICK HERE: To Order the HEALING WORDS DVD
IMPORTANT: The shelf life of Healing Words at PBS is not merely for a season! Joan Baranow, one of the main producers, says they have a three-year contract. That means any call to a PBS programming department, encouraging them to show Healing Words will still make a difference! Please write or call your local PBS programming department and share with them how valuable this film is for their audience and why it is important to you.
CLICK HERE: Locate/Contact Your Local PBS Programming Dept.
|
IPM PARTNERS - WHAT'S HAPPENING!
|
I'm excited about this expansion for IPM! It is not only about the work I do. The idea of spreading "poetic medicine" is the main reason I want to grow a nonprofit. Funds from our 2007 Raising Funds Campaign are what support the programs described below.
The IPM board voted this past year to sponsor and fund work by: Kim Nelson in Berkeley, California; Lisa DeVuono of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania; and Merna Hecht in Seattle, Washington. It is our intention to support courageous and compassionate programs. Each of these poet-healers fulfill that intention. Some highlights:
Kim Nelson (pictured with her son, Eli) serves formerly incarcerated young people and those close to them. She also edits a literary publication for these young people entitled
The Beat Within.
Kim writes:
"After release youth who have been incarcerated are notoriously hard to reach, they are busy and their lives are quite transitory. The 'inside' word of mouth network between friends that exists is the most reliable way to connect with folks.
Though I have always worked primarily with young men who are incarcerated, mostly young women attend the workshop. To date I have had seventeen youth participate at different times, with some returning (though no one is really regular - yet).
These young women are the sisters and cousins and girlfriends of the young men I worked with. Every week we realize new connections. One young woman, Crystal, is the sister of a young man who used to be incarcerated at the Ranch where I worked, who was later shot and killed after release. One day another sister of his, and hers came to the workshop as well. Crystal is the most regular participant."
Lisa DeVuono speaks of her work at the Lehigh and Lansdale Wellness Communities:
"I often used the same poem across different groups and was always amazed at the diversity of resonance, and expression. And yet, there was universality and a consistent conclusion at each group -- that listening to poetry, hearing their own and each other's voices, discussing the meanings, creating together in silence, and then proudly reading their poems was the common ground - the thread that wove through it all. That no matter how people felt about the poem, the act of listening in community, and expressing one's own voice, joined them together. Cancer brought them there, but it would be creativity that would connect them to each other, and to finding themselves beyond their illness."
Merna's Hecht's program, Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Project, which is a an IPM collaboration with The Voices Education Project (formerly Voices in Wartime) and Bread for the Journey, is scheduled to begin January 6. Merna writes:
"Many of the students at Foster are children of war and many have lived in refugee camps or experienced violence related to conflicts first hand. M. wrote a harrowing tale of his family's gun-point escape from Bosnia; Y. created a long evocative poem about Somalia before and during the war when "death came multiplying like even numbers;" K.'s poetry, always heart rendering, was about the pain of Haiti's poverty and violence.
The students wrote poetry about their personal experiences with loss, with war and ethnic conflicts, with the struggles related to immigration, with brokenness in a family, and many other difficult situations. In doing so, they discovered important things about themselves-pride in their creative work, excitement about tapping into the strength of their voices, and a knack for using beautiful and powerful language. As their admiration for each others' work grew, they supported each other in writing about courage in the face of loss and a belief in change. They became a community of poets who embraced a deep vulnerability with each other and with mutual support they published their poems and took their work into public arenas."
|
Education & Training: Poetic Medicine
Apprenticeship Project
|
 I've been teaching in graduate programs in the Bay Area for many years. My teaching began in 1993 at John F. Kennedy University through the Graduate School of Professional Psychology and now the Graduate School of Holistic Studies/Arts & Consciousness. I also teach in the Ph.D. and M.A. programs at The Institute for Transpersonal Psychology as well in the Expressive Therapy Department at the California Institute for Integral Studies. Since 2005 I've been one of the faculty at the Sophia Center of Holy Names University participating in Jim Conlon's visionary "Culture & Spirituality" degree program.
I love the opportunity to explore with students the many facets of poetry and how it heals. So - some news on expanding this!
I've begun to outline a "poetic medicine" training plan. Why? I want a training that shares this expansive vision for what poetry as healer is about with people interested in working with people. My hope is to have curriculum, training guide and business plan ready by summer.
As I develop this, I will consult with my board, with close friends and colleagues, those people who are partners of IPM projects, and with those in various professions who can give me a wide range of perspectives, challenge me, see what I don't and affirm what works! Your feedback is welcome too!
This process will help me come up with the best possible way to bring this work to people in a more comprehensive and specific way than I have to date
|
You've
had a chance to read about what is happening because of our fundraising campaign
of 2007. Deep thanks to everyone who donated! We are delayed sending our next fundraising appeal. One of the main reasons includes me not being fully in gear because of not walking for
virtually an entire year and a half.
After
34 years of no problems, I've experienced challenges on my residual limb where it joins with the prosthesis. The skin kept blistering. I have been unable to use my prosthetic leg and needed to use crutches. That's required a lot of tips at airports for wheelchair transportation! The good fortune is that I continued to travel and keep a full schedule. I'm grateful for the help I received along the way to make it possible to continue.
The good news I can report, as the new year approaches, is that it appears the skin has finally healed! I can once again walk without any aid. Hooray!
 We are moving forward on writing an appeal now. We have dynamic and courageous plans for new outreach around the U.S. and in other countries. This fundraising appeal will be coming to you at the turn of the new year.
Please look for it!
Consider Supporting
The Institute for Poetic Medicine,
a 501(c)3 Tax Deductible Corporation!
|
With
Barack Obama soon becoming President, something new and exciting is
happening, and this work will be even more timely and inspired. I am
thinking about how to share this with Tom Daschle, the new Secretary
for Health and Human Services! Obama described learning to empower people on the south side of Chicago through listening:
"That's
what the leadership was teaching me, day-by-day: that the self-interest
I was looking for extended well beyond the immediacy of the issues,
that beneath the small talk and sketchy biographies and received
opinions, people carried within them some central explanation of
themselves. Stories full of terror and wonder, studded with events that
still haunted or inspired them. Sacred stories."
~ Barack Obama ~
from Dreams from My Father
Then there is a passage about being shown the path of a poet by his mother:
"Most
of all, she possessed an abiding sense of wonder, a reverence for life
and its precious, transitory nature that could properly be described as
devotional. During the course of the day,
she might come across a painting, read a line of poetry, or hear a
piece of music, and I would see tears well in her eyes. Sometimes, as I
was growing up, she would wake me up in the middle of the night to have
me gaze at a particularly spectacular moon, or she would have me close
my eyes as we walked at twilight to listen to the rustle of the leaves."
~ Barack Obama ~
from The Audacity of Hope (the chapter on "Faith")
Sacred
stories and this deep practice of attention/listening to what matters are what "poetic medicine" is about. Poetry helps establish a consciousness that supports a sustainable world. I
believe even with the drastic and fragile economic situation America (and so much of the world) is passing through,
there is a generosity in people who care that will help IPM
flourish.
Because of your interest in the work of IPM, because of what you do where you are now, you already are a part of this. Your comments, ideas, questions, volunteer participation and financial support are welcome!
___________________________________________________
Please Feel Free to Share this e-mail
with Friends, Family and Colleagues by
Clicking on the "Forward e-mail" Link at the End of this Newsletter!
If you experience technical difficulties
that affect the quality of this e-mail,
please let us know and we will resend to
you.
Please Note:
This newsletter and its links are best
accessed through Firefox or Safari!
E-mail us at:
programmanager@poeticmedicine.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
