Writing Our Relationship with Trees--
John's Autumn Schedule
I am writing to highlight my west coast workshop schedule for the remainder of the year. I will visit Sacramento and Auburn in California and the Seattle area in Washington.
If you are interested in having a catalyst for your writing--and that catalyst carries with it a healing intention--I welcome you to attend one of these events. I am here to serve you in that way! These writing retreats will focus on the theme of Writing Our Relationship with Trees.
What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project and
Project Feast: Poetry Reading
However, one particular highlight of my late autumn travels is going to a gathering where I will be a guest. This event, in Tukwila, WA, is a poetry reading by high school students who are participants in the Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project.
The Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project is a many-layered and beautiful IPM project that serves refugee and immigrant youth. We have, in collaboration with other excellent supporting organizations, funded Youth Voices for six years. This year 13 countries* are represented; all told, in the six years, students from 30 countries have participated in this project!
Truthfulness, honor, is not something which springs ablaze of itself,
it has to be created between people.
~ Adrienne Rich
Guided by IPM poetry partner Merna Ann Hecht, and classroom teacher Carrie Stradley, this reading, a capstone to the writing project, brings forward the essential and nourishing work of another marvelous nonprofit, Project Feast.
Project Feast serves refugee and immigrant women on a day-to-day basis. They describe their mission this way:
"Our work, including our training, catering and cooking class programs demonstrate the remarkable power of food to nourish more than just the body. At Project Feast, food brings people to the table, transforms lives, and fosters mutual understandings across diverse cultures in the most delicious ways possible."
With the grievous and difficult news these days about the intense plight and needs of refugees and immigrant peoples, I want you to know about this healing project; The Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project makes a deep difference in the lives of real individuals, of families, of young people.
They have so much to teach us about resilience and creative possibility. Embedded within resilience and creativity is a courage and often a sheer cry, which bring forward raw truth. Please read this poem by K.H. of Burma:
NO FOOD
I picture my grey village, Kyar Inn, Kalay
The grey of soil and grass,
I breathe deep and deep,
I smell sadness,
The crying,
The shouting for help,
Because of no food,
No food, and without food,
We are not given peace.
The grace and gift of youth can be to not lose touch with humor and sweetness. K. H. demonstrates this in his delightful wink of a poem:
Rambutan*
You are so annoying and
Hairy like a girl who never washes her hair,
Look at you carefully and
I see you like my angel,
It's hard to say to you, "I love you"
But when I break you
you are sunshine, soft and sweet to me
hard to leave you alone
everybody wants to steal you
millions in the world want you,
but they can't have you,
because you belong to me.
~ K.H., Burma
* Rambutans (aka hairy lychees) are a close relative to the lychee nut. Although they are larger, they offer a similar firm, grape-like texture and strawberry-grape flavor. Rambutan's most exciting characteristic is their furry outer skin, which makes them look like the fresh lychee nut's punk-rock brother!
The rambutan is native to Southeast Asia.
Project Feast delights in such a poem! This soon-to-be anthology of poetry, interviews with refugee cooks and recipes from different cultures (yet to be titled) joins the voices of these young people with the cuisines of their home country. It brings together the deep nourishments found in family, cooking, creativity and homeland. Here is the biography for K.H. that is printed in the book:
K.H. was born in a small village in the Chin region of Burma. His full name means two thousand (2000). His grandpa gave him this name because in his village he was the first to be born on January 1, 2000. K.H. went to Malaysia when he was 10 years old. He lived in Malaysia for four years before he came to the U.S. Life in Malaysia was scary because there were a lot of gangs and rapes. The tongues K.H. speaks are Chin, Burmese and English.
K.H. is hoping that he can become one of the successful sons in his family and his village. K.H. misses the corn that his grandparents cooked and grew for him. He likes to watch corn turn white to yellow when his grandparents put the corn into hot water. He believes people can't live well without enough food.
He also believes that his aunt's chicken can bring peace to his family. K.H. believes food banks can help give people peace. He also believes that if everyone had enough food it would help bring peace. K.H. believes food is an important reminder of his cultural traditions.
Click here to learn much more about this project by going to the Youth Voices: Stories of Arrival Facebook page. It was created by the classroom teacher, Carrie Stradley.
The reading on December 17 is sponsored by another concerned and compassionate community partner, Tukwila Parks & Recreations. Their announcement flyer states:
"Local students (from Foster High School) have partnered with Project Feast graduates to create a book that interweaves poetry with recipes, highlighting the connections between stories of food and home."*
If you live in the Seattle area, please consider attending the reading.
Click here to learn more. You can purchase a copy of
this multi-cultural recipe and poetry book by writing to Merna Ann Hecht at
mernaanna@yahoo.com. The cost is $30 with all proceeds going to scholarships and
Youth Voices project support.
Poetic Medicine Web Site & Facebook Presence
In other IPM news, the newly designed, recently launched Poetic Medicine
web site offers a
n opportunity for you to learn about and participate in this vibrant field of poetry-as-healer.
The pages of the Poetic Medicine web site will expand over the next months and year to include more connections with:
Community of Poets,
Poetic Medicine in Action,
Poetic Medicine Bag Resources
These sections of the web site illuminate the ways poetry can be used as a healing modality for yourself, for your family, for those in helping professions and for anyone who serves others with poetry-as-healer. We welcome interaction with you!
... I want to glide on the moment
with no distress, to sit
under a Cottonwood tree
with my shadow and honor
each other's presence
in silence. I want to stay
between the -e and -i in being
for a long time.
from a poem by Nancy Story
You can:
a. share your story of using poety-as-healer,
b. request to be included in the Community of Poets pages,
c. respond to the writing prompts found with each story,
d. add to our resource bank--let us know about resources you find helpful,
e. post a connection to the Poetic Medicine web site on your
Facebook page
Plus, there are interactive forms to fill out. Please check them out.
"Kudos on the new website. It's easy to navigate and has the feeling of your books, with the side bars and quotes so readily available to fill out the sense of each page. More than that you have created a TROVE and a TREASURE for all who will arrive there."
~ Adelaide Nye
In addition to the new web site, we have given time and attention to establish a new IPM Facebook presence. Learn about specific things going on in the greater IPM community and in my work. Please check us out: your "liking" us is appreciated. If you like this healing work, let others know.
Looking Ahead--The News Coming out of Silence
Our task is to listen to the news that is
always arriving out of silence.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
In the upcoming Winter edition of the Poetic Medicine Journal,
in addition to more about Youth Voices: Stories of Arrival and Project Feast, we will feature the poetry partner work of
Cindy Washabaugh in the Collinwood neighborhood in Cleveland, OH. Through Who we are, Where we live: A Collinwood Community Arts Program you will get a sense for the life of this exciting, diverse and multi-generational community.
Cindy has done such a beautiful job to bring warmth and make more possible nurturing connection for this community.
Click here for an announcement to Collinwood residents to attend the workshop.
Other items to look forward to in the Winter Poetic Medicine Journal:
Latest news about the beautiful work of Naomi Shihab Nye,
an advisory board member for The Institute for Poetic
Medicine--we'll feature an interview and article;
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Photo: Ken Hively, LA Times
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A remembrance and appreciation of the great publisher, Jeremy P. Tarcher, who died on September 20. Jeremy was the visionary publisher of John's two books and of so many remarkable books on healing, the arts, depth psychology, spirituality, creativity, relationships, and
living a meaningful life;
Reflections by John on working with children, especially most recently at the new School at Kirkridge;
An interview with poet and psychoanalyst Karen Morris about her work and writing as witness to and advocate for children and young people who are ensnared in sex-trafficking and child slavery;
Stories about Poetic Medicine training students and the marvelous work being done in their communities.
Every day brings to me this news arising from resonant silence! Before each poem and after it, we listen to and honor a silence that attends deeply to the soulfulness in the human voice. We want to break silences--the silencing--
that shuts-down the truth of our hearts. This issue's "Last Word" feature speaks exactly to that.
If you know someone living in or near Sacramento or Auburn, CA, or Vashon Island, WA, who would like to write for healing, please help spread the word.
Sincerely Yours,
John Fox
The Institute for Poetic Medicine
If you missed the Autumn edition of the Poetic Medicine Journal and would like to read it, please click here.
* Here is a full list of this years' representative countries, including both country of origin and places where students have lived as refugees: Jordan, Yemen, Egypt, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Iran, Iraq, El Salvador, Mexico, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Guatemala.
TUKWILA, WA
