Poetic Medicine Journal

Special East Coast Edition

November, 2015

A Letter from John

Poetry as a Path for Renewal: Seven Gifts

Youth Voices and Project Feast in Seattle

In the upcoming Winter Poetic Medicine Journal

John's February Retreat at Still Point, Mechanicville, NY

Your Support Matters!

The Last Word

(You may click on title to go directly to section.)

November, 2015

Dear Friend of Poetic Medicine,

Poetry As a Path for Renewal: Seven Gifts
--

John's East Coast Winter Retreat

I am writing you to highlight my east coast workshop schedule. I will visit the Capital region of New York and offer a retreat Poetry as a Path for Renewal: Seven Gifts at the Still Point retreat center in Mechanicville, NY.

John with Judith Prest

I'll be co-facilitating with Judith Prest. Judith will bring to the retreat her excellent work with soul collage. Judith, familiar to readers of the PMJ, is a long-time friend and a poetry partner of the Institute, doing poetic medicine work at New Choices Recovery Center in Schenectady, NY.

During this visit to New York I will, for the third time, bring poetry therapy to students in the dance therapy program at Sarah Lawrence College. Led by the remarkable Cathy Appel, I am grateful for this invitation to work together on this multi-modal presentation.

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 this retreat at Still Point. The brochure (see next section for link) will give you all the information for Seven Gifts.

Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project and

Project Feast: Poetry Reading

One particular highlight of my late autumn travels is traveling 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 program 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."

from the Project Feast web site

With the grievous and difficult news these days about the intense plight and needs of refugees and immigrant peoples, and since the attacks in Paris, an increase in fear of refugees and immigrants, I want you to know about this healing work; The Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project makes a deep difference in the lives of real individuals, of families, of young people--many of whom have fled war, brutality of various kinds, economic catastrophe and other intolerable circumstances.

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 Kum Thawng Hnin
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.

This next poem, My Grandpa's Black Tea, tells us, brilliantly and helpfully, a story, a history lesson, a potent metaphor to describe a deep personal and family upheaval because of the violence that is so often inherent in military rule/occupation/colonization. All of these are associated with betrayals. Yet part of the story for Kum includes a sense of lineage--knowing and naming the courage of his Grandfather--a courage he too needs now in his own uprooting and arrival. Black Tea became the way to let all of this steep in the creation of the poem.

MY GRANDPA'S BLACK TEA

(In honor of my country Burma, colonized

by the British and Japanese, still at war)

My sister makes tea for my grandpa

he drinks it everyday

our Burmese tea, strong and rich.

Grandpa tells us about the days

when two guests came, the colonizers

Shinzo Abe and Elizabeth II

who brought their tea,

the British tea, sweet with milk,

the Japanese tea, roasted and bitter,

they drank with my grandpa

suddenly, they wanted to impose

their tea on my grandpa's tea,

so it was that my grandpa's tea was at war

with Shinzo Abe and Elizabeth II.

When my grandpa was on vacation

Elizabeth II claimed my grandpa's cup of tea

she owned it for many years,

Shinzo Abe said to my grandpa let's work together

and you will get back your tea

grandpa agreed,

together they fought Elizabeth II

who owned my grandpa's tea

and he did get it back,

but Shinzo Abe did not return the tea

to my grandpa, he played with my grandpa's tea

and he shared it with his people.

My grandpa was a lion, a lion, a fierce lion,

and attacked Shinzo Abe because he lied

and so he destroyed him.

In the end,

grandpa got back his tea back

by himself and restored his pride,

Democracy and Justice, people shouted

from their tea cups.

The grace and gift of youth can be to not lose touch with humor and sweetness. Kum Thawng Hnin 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

* 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 released anthology titled by the students Our Table of Memories: Food and Poetry of Spirit, Homeland and Tradition includes interviews with refugee cooks conducted by the students and recipes from different cultures. Recipes are joined by poems written by Youth Voices teens. They are responding to the cuisine of their home country. Our Table of Memories brings together the deep nourishments found in family, cooking, creativity and homeland--combined with the refugee and immigrant story of travail, uprooting, migration and arrival.

Here is the biography for Kum Thawng Hnin that is printed in the book:

Kum Thawng Hnin 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. Kum Thawng Hnin 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 he speaks are Chin, Burmese and English.

Kum Thawng Hnin is hoping that he can become one of the successful sons in his family and his village. Kum Thawng Hnin 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. He believes food banks can help give people peace. He also believes that if everyone had enough food it would help bring peace. Kum Thawng Hnin believes food is an important reminder of his cultural traditions.

Click here to learn much more about this project on the Youth Voices: Stories of Arrival Facebook page created by the classroom teacher, Carrie Stradley.

If you feel called at this critical time to support this project financially and if you simply want to learn more about it by meeting teachers Merna Ann Hecht, Carrie Stradley and their students, click here:

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 an 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

on the Community of Poets pages

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;

Photo: Ken Hively, LA Times

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.

JOHN'S UPCOMING EAST COAST RETREAT

surely i am able to write poems

celebrating grass and how the blue

in the sky can flow green or red

and the waters lean against the

chesapeake shore like a familiar

poems about nature and landscape

surely but whenever i begin

"the trees wave their knotted branches

and ..." why

is there under that poem always

an other poem?

Lucille Clifton

from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton

edited by Michael Glaser and Kevin Young

BOA Editions, 2012

MECHANICVILLE, NY

Still Point Retreat Center
February 19-21, 2016

Poetry and Poem-Making as a Pathway to Renewal: Seven Gifts

In this opening Friday evening talk and all-day Saturday and Sunday morning retreat John will lead us on a journey that names "seven gifts" of renewal given to us by poetry and poem-making. Judith will offer some art-making journeys that dove-tail with these seven gifts.

These gifts and this renewal are accessible in the midst of living this life--with its sorrow and joy, travail and adventure, the daily experience of being human and a deeper spiritual current that speaks to a greater mystery-poetry provides a perspective and felt-experience that can be recognized and received as gift.

Please click here for registration, lodging and contacting Judith for more information.

Your Support Matters!

The Institute for Poetic Medicine is a 501(3) non-profit organization, sustained through grassroots fundraising, foundation grants, and donations from individuals.

Ways You Can Give:

Friend of the Institute ($35-$149)
Supporting Hands ($150-$349)
Heart of the Community ($350-$999)
Spirit of the Muse ($1000+)

Every donation matters: We are grateful for any amount you can afford to give. Our commitment is to put it to effective and efficient use. Your contribution will make a difference!

Donations to The Institute for Poetic Medicine are tax deductible.

To make your donation online, please click here. The Donate button is at bottom right of page upon scrolling.

To send your donation by mail:

Please make your check payable to: The Institute for Poetic Medicine

And mail to: The Institute for Poetic Medicine, PO Box 60189, Palo Alto,
CA 94306

Because Paypal takes a service of 3% for your donation,

we prefer checks but are glad to offer this for convenience.

In appreciation for your donation of $20 or more IPM will send you

The Only Gift to Bring

a new book of poems by John Fox.

Acknowledgement of your contribution for IRS will be provided.

Thank you!

* * * * *

The Red Wheelbarrow *

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

William Carlos Williams

first published in Spring and All, 1923

* When applying to Boston University at the age of seventeen, I used this poem to explain my need to receive a scholarship. I received the scholarship! I figure it is worth another try! :)

The Last Word

Darius Simpson and Scout Bostley co-wrote LOST VOICES which gives voice, life-force, brilliance and meaning to the lives of young people. The powerful, creative breakthrough is that Darius speaks as a young woman and Scout speaks as a young Black man--and together they break the silence and mend the disconnection that happens in a culture adverse to truth spoken fiercely.

That is to say, this poem brings considerable heat! Yet listen for connections of resolve and compassion, for the way these young people hear one another and offer hope. I say hope because they are aware--together and in the present-- of what matters. They speak up for that. As Matthew Fox has said, for "hope with sleeves rolled up."

But please...listen to Scout and Darius for yourself.

Darius Simpson is featured in the film Finding the Gold Within by IPM friend Karina Epperlein (click here to learn more about the film). Scout Bostley is managing editor at The Eastern Echo (click here to learn more about her). This spoken word poem is approaching 3 million views!

Please click here to view.