message from napt’s president · all week i have been immersed in beauty, both natural and human...
TRANSCRIPT
November 2014! ! ! Page 1! ! ! Volume XXXV, Number 3
Message from NAPT’s PresidentContributed by Alma Rolfs
I am writing this message in Florence, Italy, where today I visited the church of Santa Croce, which houses the tombs of some of the world’s greatest thinkers, artists, scientists, and poets, including Galileo, Marconi, Fermi, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Dante, and other Italian poets. It was truly awe inspiring to be in the presence of such greatness. And then, in the garden, I found a lovely carved plaque, a memorial to Florence Nightingale, which also touched me deeply, and I thought yes, that is perfect, humanity needs both, the great radical thinkers, astute observers of human nature and lofty aspirational writers, but also the gentle generous hearts of the healers. All week I have been immersed in beauty, both natural and human made, and have been thinking about the human drive toward beauty and creativity and meaning making. Today’s experience at Santa Croce brought me full circle to poetry therapy and how our work brings together so fruitfully these elements: the admiration and respect for the words of others who share with us their precious thoughts and experiences, the encouraging nudge to creative self expression, and the empathic presence that allows the transformative healing moments to occur.
It is almost the end of summer and I hope you have all had a lovely few months since our wonderful conference in Arizona and the last Museletter, and that your work with poetry therapy and other forms of expressive writing using language, symbol, and story for growth and healing continues to be fulfilling and rewarding for you and the clients whom you serve. The NAPT Board is also working hard to grow our organization and respond to members’ needs. The 2015 conference committee has made great strides in putting together what promises to be a very rich and exciting program in a very beautiful setting. I hope you will all take the opportunity to join your friends and colleagues in the NAPT community this coming April in North Carolina. In the meantime, enjoy the fall, keep the muse at your side and those healing words flowing.
NAPT Board of Directors(2014-2015)President Alma RolfsVP for Conferences Barbara Kreisberg VP for MembershipDottie JoslynTreasurer Eric KreuterSecretary Beth JacobsAcademic/Educational Outreach Chair Geri ChavisPublic Relations Chairposition openSocial Media ChairLaura SantnerPublications Chair Karen vanMeenen Journal of Poetry Therapy Editor Nick MazzaDiversity ChairSusan FuscoAt LargeTwo positions open
A Praise of Muses Michael Dennis Browne Rafael Campo Michael Collier Jack Coulehan Maria Mazziotti Gillan Patricia Hampl Edward Hirsch Jane Hirshfield David Read Johnson Shaun McNiff Gregory Orr Linda Pastan James Pennebaker Luis J. Rodriguez Myra Sklarew Henry Taylor
The Museletter Editor — Karen vanMeenen Layout — Diana K. McLean
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FROM THE EDITOR
Contributed by Karen vanMeenen, MA, MA, CAPF
Welcome to the November issue of NAPT’s The Museletter. This issue includes information about next year’s conference near Asheville, North Carolina—don’t forget to save the date!—as well as our usual columns on such topics as journaling, new books, and creating poem prompts. We also pay tribute to one of our own, Jennifer Bosveld, who passed away in August, leaving a powerful legacy in the fields of poetry and poetry therapy.
And dear readers, remember that without contributions, we are unable to fulfill our mission of providing this service to our members three times a year. Feel free to get in touch with your ideas within our current column offerings, as well as proposals for new kinds of content that fall within our purview. As autumn (my favorite season for its crisp air and fragrant skies) turns to winter (season of snow and silence where I live), I would like to share with you a lovely, sense-filled short poem by Los Angeles poet Dorothy Grossman, which includes both the aspect of autumn and its connection to one of my favorite places:
In the Library
The library always smells like this:an ancient stew of vinegar and wood.It’s autumn again,and I can do anything.
Remember in writing you can do anything, too; in poetry you can conquer all. All the best for the end of this year to you and yours.
In This Issue: November 2014
President’s Message............! 1....................From the Editor! 2
Conversation with Caryn Mirriam-.......................... Goldberg! 3............................NAPT News ! 7
.................Poems as Process! 9.................Journaler’s Corner! 11
......................Muse Reviews! 14..........................PoemNation! 16
..............................Chapbook! 23
The Museletter is published in March, July and November by the National Association for Poetry Therapy. All copyrights remain with individual contributors.Please address all submissions inquiries to: Karen vanMeenen, Editor of The Museletter, [email protected] all subscription inquiries, general NAPT inquiries, memberships, address changes and administrative business to: National Association for Poetry TherapyE-mail: [email protected] NAPT’s website: www.poetrytherapy.org
To Contact NAPTEmail: [email protected]
Annual Deadlines for Museletter submissions:March issue: January 1 July issue: May 1November issue: September 1
NAPT is now on Facebook!Like our page, “National Association for Poetry Therapy,” and join our online community.
We provide daily inspiration and prompts and welcome you to post your own poetry and happenings in your area!
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Contributed by Sherry Reiter, PhD, PTR-M/S
Sherry Reiter: Caryn, when did you first fall in love with words?Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg: I think I was born hard-wired to make things. As a child, I loved art and music, probably because those were early things I was exposed to, and my energy needed an outlet. My parents were wonderful in setting me up for piano and painting lessons, and I immersed myself in sound and image for many years, but when I was 14, during the time my parents had a long-winded and somewhat violent divorce, I needed words. I wrote my first poem while sitting outside my dad’s girlfriend’s apartment building, somewhere in the middle of suburban New Jersey. After that, there was no going back, and luckily, I had fabulous mentors, especially an English teacher named Judith Rance-Rooney, who I’m still in touch with today. She let me bring my new poem to her each day in the fabled and forbidden teachers’ lounge, and she poured encouragement and resources on me, including many good poets I could read and learn from, such as T.S.
Eliot and e.e. cummings. The more I read, the more I wrote. The more I wrote, the more I fell in love with words, but I’m still falling in love with words.
SR: Who are your favorite poets and writers?CMG: The writers who have shaped me the most as a human, or at least made new dents and curves in what I believe about the world and what worlds are possible, include poets William Stafford, Adrienne Rich, Emily Dickinson, Joy Harjo, Rumi, Tess Gallagher, W.S. Merwin, Sharon Olds, and others; novelists include Toni Morrison, Stephanie Kallos, Julia Alvarez, Isabelle Allende, and Zora Neale Hurston; memoir and other non-fiction writers are Kim Stafford, James McBride, Stephanie Mills, David Abram, Lewis Hyde, and Pema Chodron. The list is always expanding though, according to my passions, community, livelihood, and evolution.
SR: I remember that you were very involved in NAPT for several years. What inspired you to create the Transformative Language Arts program at Goddard College? Can you tell us about its uniqueness?CMG: When I went to my first NAPT conference in about 1999, I was already involved with other faculty and students in creating Transformative Language Arts, which came out of my realization that there needed to be a program for people who wanted to use words—aloud, on the page, sung or written or told—to find healing, community building, and culture shift. I remember finding at NAPT so many kindred spirits, as if I woke from a great dream to find others who were dreaming the same dream. I was first inspired to develop TLA when I bumped into the question of why, when there was music and art therapy, there was no such thing as “writing therapy”? Then I realized what was calling to me was wider than therapy or writing. Our individual issues, challenges, wounds, and problems are so entwined with cultural and community issues,
Falling in Love with Words: A Conversation with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
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challenges, wounds, and problems. So often in academic fields, everything is sliced into thin subjects without the necessary interdisciplinary questioning. What if there was an MA program that brought together writers, theater people, storytellers, mythology scholars, activists, health professionals, singer-songwriters, and community leaders so they could cross-pollinate on the power of words? That was the vision behind TLA, and that’s also what makes it unique. Our students do core readings in the oral tradition, social change, expressive writing, narrative therapy, ecological art, community building and more to give them a wider perspective as they focus in on their area of inquiry, such as (to give some recent examples) how writing can help a person who suffered sexual abuse as a child craft a meaningful life for decades afterwards, how spoken word performance can empower wounded warriors in military hospitals, or the liminal space of poetry that can help us navigate grief.
SR: The Transformative Language Network is one of your greatest accomplishments. Can you tell us its mission and perhaps its similarities and differences from NAPT?CMG: The Goddard MA in TLA is one manifestation of TLA in the world, and the TLA Network is another. This not-for-profit organization is about ten years old, and we have a marvelous coordinator, Deb Hensley, and wonderful governing body, the TLA Network Council. The mission of the TLA Network is “to support and promote individuals and organizations that use the spoken, written, or sung word as a tool for personal and community transformation.” As such, the Network is committed to providing spaces, both physical and electronic, where people interested in Transformative Language Arts can share resources, network, learn, and enhance their capacity to practice Transformative Language Arts as Right Livelihood in their communities.” As a non-profit organization, our focus is to grow TLA and support people who practice TLA in their professions, private lives, communities, and art.
We try to live out the values of TLA by functioning in an art-of-word-infused and non-hierarchical way. For example, we begin and end our meetings—which are largely monthly phone conferences—with poems, always go around the circle to talk about a way TLA is unfolding in our lives, and we have a council structure as opposed to a board. That means we envision ourselves as coming together in council, each bringing his/her gifts and challenges, saying honestly what we can take on and what we need to pass on to others, and holding together the space for our collective wisdom. This isn’t to say we don’t struggle with some of the same issues as many non-profit organizations, but we’re developing this model of working in consensus together, a model based on similar approaches in the bioregional movement, Quaker meeting tradition, arts-based social change groups, and various social change group traditions.
So there’s a lot of resonance with NAPT when it comes to the power of words, especially the poetic power of language that NAPT people sometimes refer to, and what we know in our bodies, minds, and hearts about how words can heal or harm. As for differences, I believe NAPT uses a more traditional board structure rather than the council model and consensus-based decision-making. NAPT also tilts more toward therapeutic realms and toward poetry (after all, “poetry” and “therapy” are in NAPT’s name), and many NAPT members are licensed therapists while TLAN members tend to be writers, performers, community organizers, etc. Yet the boundaries between us are very much what they call in ecology “soft boundaries” with lots of overlap.
SR: What has it been like for you to be Poet Laureate of Kansas?CMG: I served as Kansas Poet Laureate for four years, appointed by then-governor Kathleen Sebelius, and for the most part, it was spectacular with lots of deep connections to many writers and their communities across the state, and lots of time to experience the beauty, diversity, and stories of Kansas. Yet it was also during this term that our
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governor eliminated the state arts commission, which housed the poet laureate program—we were the only state in the country without any state arts support for a while. No one from the governor’s office ever told me I couldn’t be poet laureate anymore, so I continued on, carrying the program in my pocket, raising funds for travel and programs, and gathering writers together so we could share our voices publicly at a time when we would otherwise be largely silenced and invisible. Some of the programs I started, without knowing why I was starting them at the time, helped quite a bit: a blog to celebrate our state’s 150th anniversary of statehood featured 150 poems, followed by a renga we wrote across Kansas with 150 writers for the blog’s second year, then a poem of the week for the third year, and this year, the blog continues on with writers guest-editing each (http://150kansaspoems.wordpress.com).This little blog led to two big anthologies, and dozens of readings with the poetry caravan—anyone in either book who could join us—all over Kansas. Seeing the way we wove together community between and beyond writers was immensely satisfying to me as well as all the support and guidance I found for keeping the poet laureate program alive and finding a new home for it in the state humanities council. My recent book Poem on the Range: A Poet Laureate’s Love Song To Kansas (Coal City Press, 2014) is a memoir about being poet laureate, but it’s just as much a travelogue of Kansas featuring poems by more than forty Kansans who show us new ways to see our home.
SR: Your personal wrestling match with cancer—if it is not too personal—how has this affected your life and your work?CMG: While I never expected breast cancer, and all the subsequent surgeries and chemotherapy, in my early forties, I found the experience definitely gave me a lot to write about but also made me want to look at my own narrative of how I lived my life, and whether I was being true to this gift of life we all have. I still struggle with the urge to get a lot done versus the longing to connect with the beauty of the living earth and all my beloveds. Living through
cancer led me to start offering writing workshops in the cancer community, which I’ve now been doing since 2003, and that’s immensely rewarding. I’ve also written books about cancer—a memoir, The Sky Begins At Your Feet, a chapbook of poetry, Reading the Body. But overall, I would say the unfolding of knowing just how mortal I am is still a work in progress as it should always be.
SR: What are you working on currently?CMG: I’m in the final stages of revising a long novel, based on Miriam from the Bible but placed in the U.S. in contemporary times. Instead of wander-ing the desert, she wanders the American political and spiritual landscape for forty years, starting at People’s Park in Berkeley in 1969. I’ve also been writing poetry about time, trying to grapple with how time moves, and that’s shaping up to be its own book. I write blog posts for my website, Hugger Mugger, on yoga, and for Huffington Post, and es-says here and there. And I’m continuing to co-write songs with rhythm and blues singer Kelley Hunt. In addition to teaching at Goddard and coordinating TLA there, I continue to facilitate community writing workshops for people with serious illness, give talks and readings, offer workshops on craft or the life of the writer, and do other projects that call to me. I also spend a lot of time on my porch on my laptop, working on projects, watching the dog sleep, and listening to the birds.
SR: What are your greatest passions? You have worked on many books. Can you tell us about them and which are dearest to your heart?MCG: Greatest passions? My family and friends, community, and the living earth and sky. I also love my dog and cats, practicing yoga, walking and wandering, writing and reading, making art, seeing movies, and eating delicious food. I don’t have a book or two that is dearest to my heart out of the nineteen I’ve edited or written—all are great loves in one way or another. I’m very happy with my new collection of poetry, Chasing Weather: Tornadoes, Tempests, and Thunderous Skies in Word and Image (Cube Press, 2014), I wrote in collaboration with
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weather chaser/photographer Stephen Locke—it was a joy to focus so much on weather and work with such a visionary artist. I also loved co-editing Transformative Language Arts in Action with Ruth Farmer, and working with Kay Adams, the series editor, for that new book. It was lovely to see how TLA is growing and unfolding in the world, and to put together so many strong essays for that anthology. Writing itself remains a close companion as I watch what’s ready to come into words and
reveal itself in its rhythm, images and music. All of it just makes me feel so alive.
SR: Any tantalizing tidbit you can offer about your upcoming keynote?CMG: I’m very drawn to how writing and reading together can make and keep community as well as what it means and could mean to be in community with others. I love seeing the miracles that come out of people coming together in true fellowship.
Books for Sale from NAPT
Poetry as Healer: Mending the Troubled Mind($40 incl. US shipping)
This is a classic book about poetry therapy edited by NAPT’s pioneer, our beloved Jack Leedy, M.D. The text is divided into the Why, How, and Where of poetry therapy by noted authors in the field including Dr. Leedy, Morris R. Morrison, Aaron Kramer, and Art Berger. The essays give the reader a thorough understand-ing and appreciation of how poetry heals, and why it is “the royal road to the unconscious.”
Giving Sorrow Words($6 members, $7 nonmembers, incl. US shipping)
Giving Sorrow Words is an outgrowth of the many poems received and posted by the National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT) in September 2001. The collection was edited by publication chair, Karen vanMeenen, and then-special projects chair, Charlie Rossiter, along with Kathleen Adams, who provided the Preface.
The Healing Fountain($30 incl. US shipping)
The Healing Fountain, edited by Geri Chavis and Lila Weisberger, is a rich and brilliant compendium of how poetry heals across the life span. Its ten chapters are written by 17 of the leading poetry therapists practicing today. An invaluable resource for anyone who uses poetry for healing in their personal or professional lives—and good reading, besides!
Order at http://www.poetrytherapy.org/publications.html#books.
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Contributed by Barbara Kreisberg, MS, CPT, Vice President, Conferences
Blue Ridge Reflections: Word-Paths for Growth and Healing
By now the chill of fall is in the air as we approach winter. I am remembering the excitement and enthusiasm that was generated this past spring at our last conference at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Next April, we will be meeting in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, specifically Black Mountain, outside Asheville, North Carolina, at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly. These magnificent mountain vistas with fresh air and scenic views are the perfect place to both inspire and nurture us. For those who wish to obtain credit for their certification in Poetry Therapy or renew their certification, it will be an opportunity to receive CEUs and training hours. For others, it will be a gathering place to learn about the therapeutic aspects of the written word, to self-reflect, and to become inspired by what is written and shared by others during our time together. The NAPT annual conference is a time to reconnect with old friends and colleagues, make new connections, and take advantage of new networking opportunities. I do not think NAPT has ever had a conference in the mountains before! If so, it has been a very long time. Because of this, we have tried to take advantage of this glorious landscape. There will be a Wednesday pre-conference outing co-facilitated by Geri Chavis and me,
“Day Trip to the Carl Sandburg House: Exploring Mountain Vistas to Replenish the Soul” where the group will be driven by bus to the Carl Sandburg home, a national historic site in Hendersonville, for a tour followed by a walk in the mountains for a rejuvenating poetry therapy workshop. In addition, on Thursday morning, a pre-conference workshop will be led by Kay Adams entitled “Journals Quick and Easy” and on Thursday afternoon a pre-conference workshop will be offered by Perie Longo entitled “Using Poetry Therapy to Navigate the Peaks and Valleys of Aging.” will also be offering opportunities for those seeking peer hours to go toward their certification to attend the morning triple workshop, which will be held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings, facilitated by Susan deWardt and Elaine Brooks. We have received a number of exciting and diverse workshop proposals that will be announced soon and here are some of the special events in place so far:
• Thursday afternoon screening of the film The Welcome. This moving feature-length documentary film follows a group of veterans as they explore the healing power of writing, followed by a discussion.
NAPT News: NAPT’s Annual Conference
Save the Date: April 23–26, 2015
Location: YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly
on Black Mountain (in the scenic
mountains outside of Asheville, NC)
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• Thursday night Welcoming Event: “Poetry Alive”: an energetic and inspirational opening event, using high-energy and interactive performance poetry•Friday morning: Keynote Speaker Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, poet, writer, founder of Transformative Language Arts at Goddard College, and the third Kansas Poet Laureate (2009–13) •Saturday morning: Keynote Poet Laura Hope-Gill, essayist, poet, teacher, narrator, and storyteller will offer an interactive workshop after lunch. Founder of the first Narrative Medicine Certificate Program, at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Asheville, in 2010 Hope-Gill was named the first poet laureate of the Blue Ridge Parkway by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. In 2008, she was named a North Carolina Arts Fellow in Creative Nonfiction and she is an award-winning architectural historian.• Saturday afternoon: Celebratory Event with Christey Carwile, PhD, professor of anthropology at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, who will facilitate a meaningful movement circle as the closing for our group using creative dance, spontaneous poetry, and community-building movement exercises.
Registration, lodging, and travel information and pricing will be posted on our web site at www.poetrytherapy.org. Registration will be open and available beginning December 15. Please take advantage of our Early Bird Discount and send in your registration before March 1. Please contact me at [email protected] with questions or for further information. I look forward to seeing you in the gorgeous mountains of North Carolina in April!
Jennifer Bosveld, 1945–2014In memoriam
Contributed by Charlie Rossiter
The poetry ther-apy community experienced a great loss when Jennifer Bosveld—poet, publisher, innkeeper, and activist—died August 30 in Columbus, Ohio, after an extended illness. She was involved with NAPT for many years, for a while editing the NAPT newsletter. Jen also coined the term “applied poetry.” Those who knew Jen know that she was a highly energetic person, plain spoken and outspoken, a source of many ideas that she was not hesitant to express and advocate. She was an important force in small press publishing as founder/publisher of Pudding House Publications, which had over 2,000 titles in print. In 1999 Jen founded the Red Wheel Barrow Award, which was awarded to a member of NAPT each year as her way to “support the art in the science and the many members who work hard to bring the best of their sense of language arts to the best of their ability to serve and heal.” The award-winning chapbook, published by Pudding House, was among the many publications and poetic toolkits she brought to her sale table at many annual NAPT conferences. Another of her important con-tributions to NAPT is the conference open mic. At the Saratoga Springs, New York, conference on the campus of Skidmore College in the 1980s, she organized an open mic for conference participants. At that time the open mic was not a part of the official program. However, it proved so popular that the open mic was added to the program the next year and has remained an important part of each year’s conference. Jen Bosveld was a wonderful person who lived a life imbued with poetry, and she left a legacy of contributions to the field of poetry and poetry therapy.
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Writing suggestions contributed by Rob Merritt
American Life in Poetry: Column 444
Our sense of smell is, as you know, not nearly as good as that of our dogs, but it can still affect us powerfully. A good writer, like Tami Haaland of Billings, Montana, can show us how a single odor can sweep us back through time.
Writing suggestions
• Our sense of smell may be one of our most powerful triggers of memory. Note how quickly Haaland takes a small domestic detail and widens it to a time in her childhood and beyond. Write about how a smell takes you on a journey into your past and even how the smell and the visual imagery are “like” memory beyond your own individual experience, a bigger history.
American Life in Poetry: Column 483
The poems of Leo Dangel, who lives in South Dakota, are known for their clarity and artful understatement. Here he humbly honors the memory of one moment of deep intimacy between a mother and her son.
Writing suggestions• Does a memory stick in your mind, but you are not
sure why? Start with a memory that might seem trivial. As the images become more detailed, the significance is revealed. Not only does the reader discover meaning, but it appears that the author is discovering meaning too through the process of writing the poem. Write via precise detail through memory toward epiphany, one that provides some comfort that you did not know was there. You could write about your mother or father. How are they still moving you to a softer place?
A Colander of Barley
The smell, once water has rinsed it,
is like a field of ripe grain, or the grain held
in a truck, and if you climb the steel side,
one foot lodged on the hubcap, the other
on the wheel, and pull your body upward,
your hands holding to tarp hooks, and lift toes
onto the rim of the truck box, rest your ribs
against the side, you will see beetles
and grasshoppers among the hulled kernels.
Water stirs and resurrects harvest dust:
sun beating on abundance, the moist heat
of grain collected in steel, hands
plunging and lifting, the grain spilling back.
Poems as Process
In Memoriam
In the early afternoon my mother
was doing the dishes. I climbed
onto the kitchen table, I suppose
to play, and fell asleep there.
I was drowsy and awake, though,
as she lifted me up, carried me
on her arms into the living room,
and placed me on the davenport,
but I pretended to be asleep
the whole time, enjoying the luxury—
I was too big for such a privilege
and just old enough to form
my only memory of her carrying me.
She’s still moving me to a softer place.
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Poems as Process, continued
American Life in Poetry: Column 461
So much of what we learn about life comes from exchanging stories, and this poem by a Californian, Peter Everwine, portrays that kind of teaching. I love the moment where he says he doesn’t know if the story is true but it ought to be.
Writing suggestions• How can a story change your life? Especially a story that might nor be “true”? Try writing a poem entitled “The Darker Mysteries I Live By” or “Place Your Trust in a Shadow World.”• What are the signs you see every day that you don’t need a priest to explain? All you need is to “keep your wits about you.”
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Christ’s miracle,
it was the darker mysteries
she lived by:
shiver-cry of an owl, black
dog by the roadside,
a tapping at the door and
nobody there.
The moral of the story was
plain enough:
miracles become a burden and
require a priest
to explain them. With signs,
you only need
to keep your wits about you
and place your trust
in a shadow world that lets
you know hard luck
and grief are coming your way.
And for that
—so the story goes—any day
will do.
A Story Can Change Your Life
On the morning she became a
young widow,
my grandmother, startled by a
sudden shadow,
looked up from her work to see
a hawk turn
her prized rooster into a
cloud of feathers.
That same moment, halfway
around the world
in a Minnesota mine,
her husband died,
buried under a ton of
rockfall.
She told me this story sixty
years ago.
I don’t know if
it’s true but it ought to be.
She was a hard old woman, and
though she knelt
on Sundays when the
acolyte’s silver bell
announced the moment of
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Introductions copyright ©2013 and ©2014 by The Poetry Foundation. The introductions’ author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006. “A Colander of Barley” from When We Wake in the Night by Tami Haaland, ©2012 WordTech Editions, Cincinnati, Ohio. Poem reprinted by permission of Tami Haaland and the publisher. “A Story Can Change Your Life”
copyright ©2012 by Peter Everwine, whose most recent book of poems is Listening Long and Late, University of Pittsburg Press, 2013. Poem reprinted from Ploughshares, Winter 2012–13, Vol. 38, No. 4, by permission of Peter Everwine and the publisher. “In Memoriam” copyright ©2013 by Leo Dangel from his most recent book of poems, Saving Singletrees, WSC Press, 2013. Poem reprinted by permission of Leo Dangel and the publisher.
Poems as Process, continued
The Journaler’s CornerPrompts for Every Occasion
Contributed by Beth Jacobs, PhD
A good prompt is a welcome jolt like getting flowers delivered to your door. A prompt is a small writing assignment that is designed to focus and enliven journaling or writing. When a prompt hits the spot, it refreshes the writing and feeling processes. I have a stash of prompts on topics that I’ve noticed give peo-ple trouble in general and these topics can be diffi-cult to write about, so they often get avoided in jour-nals. Occasionally asking what is being left out of the journal yields valuable information and becomes a prompt in itself. For today’s column, I thought I’d open the vault and you can pick and choose from these topics and prompts to experiment with ideas for yourself and people with whom you work.
Body Image
~ Describe your best physical feature in detail. What is uniquely valuable about that part of your body?
~ Imagine for a minute that you live in an alternate universe where everyone walks around in uniform size black boxes that you can see out of but not into. How would the removal of any physical evaluation affect your interactions and feelings?
~ What are the characteristics of how you move, navigate, and occupy space? Describe this in the abstract and also in terms of an animal whose movement you think resembles your own.
~ What do your hands reveal about your personality? Describe the physical characteristics and what they imply.
Self Judgment
~ If you were a tree, what kind would you be and what would you look like? Why do we describe people with so much judgment and trees with such descriptive neutrality?
~ What if we got report cards on personality instead of intellectual skills? Design a brief report card by listing five to eight important personality character-istics. Grade yourself as you see yourself now and as a child.
~ Flipsides. Think of how a strong trait of yours sometimes works for you and sometimes works against you. Write two paragraphs describing incidents that illustrate each side of your trait, for example a time when being very thorough caused you to accomplish something special and a time when it caused frustration.
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~ Write a brief description of yourself with no evaluative terms at all. Think of your description like being in color vs. black and white. Watch connotation. You may have to edit. Say you’re six feet and two inches, not that you’re tall. Say you spend most nights reading novels, not that you’re well read. Say you tend to spend time alone, not that you’re a loner. Etc.
Addiction & Compulsiveness
~ List ten things you really could have become addicted to but that you’ve avoided and you aren’t.
~ Write a short dialog between yourself and the substance or activity you are addicted to as if it is a person who has overstayed his or her welcome as a guest in your home.
~ Think about something you are really compulsive and driven about and imagine your life if that thing never occurred ever again. Write a sketch of what that might look like, for example, a humorous bit about swimming in dust if you never dusted again, or maybe a serious and wishful view of your life being free of smoking.
~ Who in your life has affected you the most by his or her compulsions or addictive behaviors? How? If you could ask that person any questions now and get honest answers, what would those questions be?
Food & Eating
~ If you could get all your nutrition in a pill or injection or tube, what would you miss most about eating?
~ Pick three relationships in your life that are important. If each person were an item of food, what would it be and why?
~ Write two menus: one of the perfect meal you would like to eat (with no repercussions) and one of the perfect meal you feel that you should eat. How do your feelings about yourself change as you are
writing each of the two menus or if you imagine eating the two meals?
~ Try matching up foods to emotions. Pick a specific food you would want to eat if you were really excited, sad, nervous, mad, envious, or proud. Why those choices?
Friendships
~ Why don’t friends usually break up like lovers? What other, less direct ways do we end friendships? Which do you prefer?
~ Who is your friend that you’ve known for the longest time and what does he or she know about you that no one else does?
~ If your friendships were a kind of landscape you walked in, what type of landscape would it be, what would it look like and what would be the hazard zones?
~ Research has shown that having friends can actually have impact on survival rates in some circumstances. Does that make sense in your experience? How does it operate in your life? How would you express just how critical your friends feel to you?
Love Relationships
~ Do sexual dynamics tell the truth about relation-ships? When you think of an important partner in your life, did or does your physical relationship mirror or distort the emotional connection?
~ Write four lists: Ways my lover is like my mother (or a mothering figure in my life), Ways my lover is different from my mother, Ways my lover is like my father (or fathering figure), Ways my lover is different from my father.
~ Is there such a thing as a soulmate? How many people in the world do you think you could really
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consider a partner in life? Do you think this could or should change over the course of your life?
~ How important is it for you to have a lover or definite life partner? If your life were a house, what part of it would best represent a partner (foundation, wall frames, windows to open to the world…)?
Money
~ We all have kind of a relationship with money. Imagine a scenario personifying money and you are on a first date or have an encounter where you first meet someone named, “Money.” Does your story tell you something about how you have learned to relate to money?
~ What is your earliest memory concerning money? What were you taught in your childhood about money and have those messages persisted?
~ How much money do you deserve to have? Write down a number. Then, write about what consider-ations went through your mind to arrive at this number.
~ How much cash do you typically carry with you? Do you have emergency cash hidden? What do you do with change?
~ What is revealed about your personality from your answers?
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Creating Your Own Prompts
A prompt can be a question, a series of questions, a request for a particular description, or an exercise. The key to prompt creation is to find the quirky or unexpected angle on the topic. The more offbeat and creative, the better for opening perspective. Switch time frames, scale, or typical stance. If something is too close to see, look at it in terms of history, or from the view of another planet or as a child or on your deathbed. If something is painful, try to look for comic potential or neutralize its sting by considering ways this painful impact may benefit your overall life course. You can also switch up the writing style drastically to create a prompt. Force yourself to rhyme or put limits on how much you can write or types of verbs you can use.
If you are stuck in writing or a topic is caus-ing your journal to spiral over and over the same territory, a prompt is a way to jog your process back into useful action. Sometimes it helps to just ask yourself what kind of prompt would someone else make for you on this topic. Or you can write to a friend and trade prompts. Or, you can create your own prompt stash and put it in a file or notebook. Then you are ready for the rainy writing day or times when you feel bewildered. Your collection of prompts is a guarantee that your writing can keep moving productively, and just working on it is guar-anteed to bring you some fresh insight and energy.
The Journalers’ Corner discusses personal writing as a therapeutic and artistic process. Please write with comments or suggestions: [email protected].
Museletter Layout Position Open
The Museletter is looking for someone to do layout of the publication three times a year (February, June, and October). The work involves copying and pasting content from individual Word documents into the various sections of the publication, and making layout adjustments once the text is in place, as well as decisions about placement of illustrations (usually photographs supplied by the Editor and book covers, procured by the layout artist from web sources). The work takes six-seven hours per issue. The template is currently in Pages (a Mac product) so we are looking for someone who uses (and already owns) Pages. The position begins February 1, 2015, with work on the March 2015 issue. The stipend is $20/hour. If you are interested please email Karen at [email protected].
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Muse Reviews
Healing is a Journey: Find your own path to hope, recovery and wellnessBy Minx BorenBlue Mountain Arts, 2014
Reviewed by Darlene Goetzman
“To begin you’ve got to empty what’s full in order to make room for something new.”
Poetry, questions, lists, and essays ease readers into the difficult and divine of healing. This book is a lovely mixture of practical suggestions and inspiring words that empty, open, nudge, support, and invite readers into the healing process. Although focused upon healing, readers will see echoes of all the vagaries and vitalities of day-to-day life.
“You cannot replenish yourself when you are bursting at your emotional seams.”
Noting journal writing as a foundational practice for healing, Master Certified Coach Minx Boren names five things effective journal writing is dependent upon:
(1) Your intention to be completely honest with yourself;(2) Your commitment to write for at least ten minutes every day; (3) Your openness to allow yourself to be surprised by what shows up on the page and not just write about what you’ve already done or already know or believe to be so;(4) Your decision to not be a tough critic, to not hold on to unreasonable standards and expectations concerning both your ability to write and the worthiness or validity of what you have to say; and(5) Your promise to never end your writing time on a downbeat or depressing note.
She explains #5 like this: “No matter what you need to put down, face honestly, or let go of, always spend
a few minutes at the end naming at least one thing you can do to release any negativity and one positive action you can take in pursuit of the life you want to create for yourself” (21).
Healing is a Journey, like Boren herself, I imagine, walks the talk. From beginning to end this book exudes respect for the reader. Take this example from the chapter How to Begin the Journey. Boren asks: “What practices awaken your resilience and fortify your strength?” She goes on to name some possibilities and other questions to ask, ending with, “You’ll know you are on the right track when you experience a sense of relief or maybe even excitement—when you begin to feel replenished rather then depleted or overwhelmed by whatever it is you decide to do” (17).
Capturing the essence of the book and the healing journey, Boren offers this final poem:
there comes a time when the real healing beginsbeyond the myriad interventionsand miracle of medicinebeyond the mysterious ways ofherbal decoctions and nutritious concoctionsbeyond the magic of touchand graceful movements mindfully practiced something shifts somehowand we know deep in our bonesthat we have been reborn intoour own magnificent wholeness
steeped in gratitudefor all that has sustained usand carried us alongto this blessed momentwe experience at lastthe vital essence of our alivenessand the responsiveness of our mind and bodyto the love that is always thereat the very core of our beingand at the very edges of our own glorious wholeness
and so at last we bask in the fullness
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of this precious journey called lifeand the expansiveness of our own timeless spirit
Healing is a Journey lightens the burdens and enlightens a path forward. It is a gift package of
words, textured, complete, and blossoming with watercolor scenes in variegated greens, yellows, purples, and oranges.
Poem used by permission of Blue Mountain Arts, Inc. All rights reserved.
Journal of Poetry TherapyThe Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research, and Education
The Journal of Poetry Therapy (JPT), sponsored by the National Association for Poetry Therapy, is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal committed to the publication of original articles concerned with the use of the language arts in therapeutic, educational, and community-building capacities. Research (qualitative and quantitative), practice (clinical and education), theoretical, and literary studies are emphasized. The intended audience for JPT includes those in the allied helping professions; as well as those in literary/artistic fields with a concern for the healing/therapeutic aspects of the language, symbol, and story.
A subscription to the Journal of Poetry Therapy is included with NAPT membership. Individual subscriptions are available and members are encouraged to invite libraries and professional organizations to subscribe.
The National Association of Poetry Therapy’sMuseletter is seeking contributors …
of book reviews, “Profiles” of organizations and individuals, “Poems as Process,” writing prompts, “Happenings” reports on conferences and other creative arts therapies events, “Chapbook” poems (with brief accompanying narrative), interviews with poets and creative arts therapies practitioners and feature
articles related to the field for future issues.
As we are unable to publish all the submissions we receive, please refer to previous issues of the Museletter for general style and content before submitting a proposal or article.
The Editor welcomes proposals at least four weeks in advance of submission deadlines (May 1, Sept. 1 and Jan.1, for issues released July 1, Nov. 1 and March 1).
Email [email protected] for more information or with your ideas.
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PoemNation
Events
The next annual conference of the National Association for Poetry Therapy will be held April 23-26, 2015, outside Asheville, North Carolina. For information on attending the conference, see the NAPT News column in this issue of The Museletter or visit our website at www.poetrytherapy.org.
Classes / Workshops / Professional Training
• California
The Southern California Poetry Therapy Network offers peer/supervision training hours for those working on their CAPF, CPT and PTR in Santa Barbara or Los Angeles. Others interested in the process are also welcome. Facilitation practice, group supervision, skill building, case studies and literature review are offered, supervised by Master Mentor/Supervisor Perie Longo, PhD, MFT, PTR. Call Perie at (805) 687-1619 or email [email protected] for further information and/or about the next scheduled meeting.
• Colorado
Life Coach Susan L. de Wardt, CAPF/CJF, M/S-P, is now accepting trainees for the CAPF credential. With over twenty-five years experience as a coach using writing process and applied poetry facilitation with developmental populations, Susan brings a special perspective to CAPF-specific didactic training, mentoring and supervision for national and international students via teleconference, Skype and on-line classes. Training includes all NFBPT requirements in applied poetry therapy theory and facilitation, scope of practice and ethics for the non-clinician, plus specialized training in recognizing and developing opportunities for applied poetry facilitation in non-clinical setting as well as SMART business strategies for building a successful practice.
For more information on courses and training opportunities visit www.mindworkscoaching.com or contact Susan at (970) 846-6562 or [email protected].
• Florida
Reflective Writing: A Women’s Writing Group meets on Monday evenings, through the Behavioral and Collaborative Medicine Department at South Miami Hospital, facilitated by Barbara Kreisberg, MS, CPT. Through spontaneous guided writing experiences designed to awaken and nurture the self and through the reading of selected poems, participants will discover the process of personal growth and healing by using the written word. Participants are given the opportunity to be moved by their own writing as well as others, with the emphasis on gaining a deeper understanding of life events, obstacles and opportunities. Please call (305) 975-3671 or email [email protected] for further information and pre-registration.
• Kansas
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, PhD, facilitates ongoing workshops for people living with or recovering from serious illness, including cancer, at Turning Point of Kansas City: A Center for Hope and Health; workshops on the craft and passion of poetry and prose; online classes through the Transformative Language Arts Network (http://TLANetwork.org) and The Loft (http://Loft.org); and workshops on writing and healing through many venues. She also offers talks and readings, including on the writing life, the Holocaust and Polish Resistance, mythopoetics, and bioregional writing. With singer-songwriter Kelley Hunt, Caryn leads an annual Brave Voice: Writing & Singing for Your Life retreat each May in the Flint Hills of Kansas (http://BraveVoice.com). Her blog can be found at www.CarynMirriamGoldberg.com, and her yoga blog at http://huggermugger.com/blog.
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PoemNation• Maryland
Internalized metaphors that encode a client’s experience and learned strategies for meeting the world are key players in his/her process of inner healing and growth. Mining Your Metaphors offers trainings in Clean Language and Symbolic Modeling, cutting-edge techniques for working therapeutically and experientially with these internalized metaphors. Director and lead trainer Gina Campbell, MEd, CAPF is the author of a workbook series: Mining Your Client’s Metaphors: A How-To Workbook on Clean Language and Symbolic Modeling. For more information visit www.miningyourmteaphors.com or email [email protected]. Approved for credit by NFB/PT for those training in poetry therapy, with mentor-supervisor permission.
• Maryland
Nessa McCasey, CPT, PTP, Mentor, is now accepting trainees for the Poetry Therapy Practitioner credential (through iaPOETRY). Nessa has worked as a poetry therapist since 2006. She has served NAPT as a board member (Membership VP) and as Administrator and received awards from NAPT (Distinguished Service and Outstanding Achievement). Now Nessa is Director of the new credentialing organization, iaPOETRY. She brings acceptance and openness to the process of training (and believes in the value of diversity in skills and abilities). Contact [email protected] for more information. Further information about the credential process through iaPOETRY is found at www.iapoetry.org.
• Massachusetts
Cheryl Buchanan will be offering a new creative writing workshop starting in September at St. Francis House in Boston, a center for the poor and homeless that provides housing, medical care, clothing, meals, counseling, vocational rehabilitation, and programs in expressive art. The workshop is called “Survivor Stories” and aims to help improve insight and
cooperative communication skills while sharing and creating poetry and literature for purposes of connection, support and development of one's own voice. For more information email [email protected].
• Minnesota
Geri Chavis, LP, CPT, PhD, periodically facilitates a poetry therapy supervision group in Minneapolis. For information contact Geri at (651) 690-6524 or [email protected] the early 1980s, the Minnesota Poetry Therapy Network has been meeting six times a year and is going strong. This peer experience poetry therapy group focuses on a particular theme, reading and creating together and sharing resources. We meet every other month on Saturdays from 10:30am to 2:30pm. For details contact Geri Chavis at [email protected] or at (651) 690-6524.
• New England
Full Moon Playwrights & Actors Meet-Up meets one Monday night per month in Wellesley, MA, for readings, with actors of new plays and film scripts in development. For more information contact [email protected] or visit www.meetup.com/FullMoonPlaywright-Actors-com/?gj=ej4&a=ti1_lm1.
Playback Theatre Troupe, True Story Theatre offers a variety of training and performances in Playback Theatre in the Boston area. For information contact Christopher Ellinger, Artistic Director, at [email protected] or visit www.truestorytheatre.org.
• New York City/New Jersey/Long Island/Long Distance
The Creative Righting Center holds groups one Sunday a month, September through June, and welcomes all to a beautiful poetry therapy community of therapists, teachers, writers and lovers
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PoemNationof the spoken/written word. Each Sunday includes one hour of group supervision, two hours of peer group and one hour of didactic accruable toward poetry therapy certification/registration. Persons who would like to be mentored long distance or in the tri-state area are welcome to contact Dr. Reiter, and explore how an individualized plan can be created for them. For more information contact Sherry Reiter at (718) 998-4572 or [email protected].
bridgeXngs Poetry Center, Inc., is a state-of-the-art comprehensive poetry center and intentional commu-nity pioneering on-line courses for poetry therapy trainees and others, directed by Lila L. Weisberger, Director of the International Academy for Poetry Therapy. Lila offers training in poetry therapy to earn the credential of Poetry Therapy Practitioner and is currently accepting highly motivated people for training. She offers training in poetry therapy to both long-distance and local trainees, in individual and small group supervision. The curriculum is adapted to meet the learning style of each trainee while cover-ing all the material that leads to excellence in the field. Lila is an experienced teacher, school psychol-ogist, poetry therapist and creative arts therapist. She has received awards for her outstanding teaching as well as awards for her work as a psychologist in the schools. Your learning will happen in a supportive environment. Monthly poetry peer groups are offered in Manhattan as well as the annual July Intensive “ACTIONWEEK.” Courses are offered twice a year and include a peer group for long distance trainees; a didactic and ex-periential course based on the text The Healing Fountain: Poetry Therapy for Life’s Journey by Geri Chavis and Lila Weisberger; Abnormal Psychology: Words on a Hat; Learning Psychology Through Literature; and study groups of major poetry therapy texts. Special programs include Poetry and Altered Books and Creating three-dimensional poetry dolls. For information contact Lila at [email protected] or (917) 660-0440. For more information about the offerings of bridgeXngs Poetry Center visit www.nfbpt.com/ms/lilaweisberger/index.html or www.iaPOETRY.org or www.bridgecrossings.org. The International
Center for Poetry Therapy (iaPOETRY) is a branch of bridgeXngs Poetry Center, Inc. Director Lila Weisberger along with Assistant Director Nessa McCasey, Certification Chair Sana Mulji Dutt and the other Board members and Mentors invite you to contact any of us for more information.
• United Kingdom
Lapidus is the UK’s national organization for Creative Writing Health and Wellbeing. It publishes the online Lapidus Journal (www.lapidusjournal.org) three times a year (a benefit of membership), in which practitioners of therapeutic writing, writers and others working in fields where narratives or poetry are linked with well-being share their experience and ideas. Lapidus has regional groups across the UK and holds regular events, meetings and professional development opportunities. Members work with people in diverse settings including healthcare, education, prisons, community arts projects and libraries. See www.lapidus.org.uk or email [email protected] for further information.
Metanoia Institute offers courses in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP) in London for those with an interest in literature and how it may be used to assist those experiencing life problems and for those currently working in the helping professions who seek a comprehensive training to prepare them for working in the field of creative writing for therapeutic purposes. For information email [email protected] or see www.metanoia.ac.uk/msccwtp.
Victoria Field is a provisional Mentor-Supervisor taking on trainees for the qualification of Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator. She has wide experience working in health and social care settings and running training courses in poetry therapy. She is a sessional lecturer at the Metanoia Institute in their MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes and a regular tutor on the Writing in Health and Social Care program at Ty Newydd, the National Writing Centre for Wales. She is a faculty member of
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PoemNation
PoetryReach in Ireland. She has also taught past courses at Bristol, Sussex and Falmouth Universities as well presented in Canada, South Africa and Kuwait. She has a long association with Lapidus (where she was twice Chair) and co-convened the Kent Writing and Wellbeing Network with Sarah Salway. She has co-edited three books on therapeutic writing: Writing Works and Writing Routes, both with Gillie Bolton and Kate Thompson, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, and Prompted to Write with Zeeba Ansari, published by fal and now in its second edition. She blogs at poetrytherapynews and can be contacted at [email protected].
• On-line/Virtual/Region-free
Therapeutic Writing Workshops: Journal to the Self®, the signature workshop based on the classic book Journal to the Self by author Kathleen Adams, is now available online. Let Certified Instructor Susan de Wardt, CAPF/CJF, M/S-P guide you through the complete Journal to the SELF® writing process in the comfort of your own home and in your own time frame. Lesson modules are posted weekly to a group list where you can download and work at your convenience. Experience the writing process then post your discoveries for feedback and support. Whether you take this course for personal develop-ment or for training credit toward certification or cre-dential renewal, you’ll learn to use a journal to gently but powerfully explore the various aspects of your life, self and relationships. Discover unique ways to solve problems, relieve stress and celebrate experi-ence. Explore your creativity as you develop your unique and authentic self through reflective writing practice. Thousands of people have taken this course and agree: Journal writing is a joy! For more inform-ation on courses and training opportunities visit www.mindworkscoaching.com or contact Susan at (970) 846-6562 or [email protected]. Margot Van Sluytman offers on-line courses in Expressive Writing: 1) Poetry and the Process of Healing: The Dance With Encounter; 2) Poetry from Soul—Soul from Poetry; 3) Writing From Wild Self
—Real Self: Surrender not Control; 4) Writing and the Process: Out of Dark Night; 5) Writing and the Process Two: the Healing Art of Dancing With Words; and 6) The Other Inmate: Writing Your Voice of Reconciling With Trust After Crime. In conjunction with the publication of her two newest books—Sawbonna: Dialogue of Hope, which is a real-life restorative justice story about Margot sharing healing with one of the men who murdered her father and how writing saved her life; and The Other Inmate: Mediating Justice-Mediating Hope, as well as the recently released DVD Sawbonna: Dialogue of Hope and Healing, Speaking With the Man Who Murdered Her Father—Margot offers workshops on the kinship between Restorative and Transformative Justice in which Expressive Writing plays a vital, healing and transformative role. For information visit www.margotvansluytman.com/onlinecourses.html or contact Margot at [email protected] or (403) 454-1275.
Writing for Life: Creating a Story of Your Own by Sandra Lee Schubert. The journaling and scrapbook-ing techniques taught in this course provide a crea-tive way to connect with the inner self and heal emo-tional wounds while documenting your story, your life in a fun and unique way. For more information and to sign up visit www.selfhealingexpressions.com/scrapbooking.shtml.
The International Academy for Poetry Therapy (iaPOETRY). Director Nessa McCasey, CPT, PTP, Mentor; along with Assistant Director Jill Teague, CPT, PTP; Certification Chair Sana Mulji Dutt, CPT, PTP, Mentor; and Creative Director Lila Weisberger, PT; and Mentors invite you to contact any of us for more information about earning the Poetry Therapy Practitioner credential. See www.iaPOETRY.org for more details.
Graduate Education
Goddard College’s Transformative Language Arts (TLA) Master’s Program allows students to pursue
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PoemNation
social and personal transformation through the spoken and written word through a deep exploration of your personal TLA practice (as a writer, storyteller, etc.) as well as the social and cultural picture informing your particular focus of study (a focus you choose!). TLA students may also fulfill many of the poetry therapy certification requirements through this degree. TLA criteria include a community-based practicum, thesis project of your own design, and a balance between theory and practice in your study and art of words. Students also have opportunities to shadow poetry therapy and related practitioners around the world. See www.goddard.edu/academic/tla.html or www.goddard.edu/concentration_transformative_language_arts or contact Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg at [email protected] for information.
Pacifica Graduate Institute’s accredited MA/PhD program in Mythological Studies program cultivates the mythic imagination through a strong grounding in a variety of mythic narratives and religious traditions. Students discover recurring mythic themes in classic and contemporary literature, theater, art and film, while recognizing cultural and historical contexts. Fostering the confluence of scholarship and imagination, the program invites students into the art of writing. The program especially emphasizes the interpretative modes of depth psychology, particularly the influences that derive from Sigmund Freud, C.G. Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz and James Hillman. Joseph Campbell’s groundbreaking work and insights also inform the program. Pacifica has developed educational formats that are particularly well suited to individuals who wish to pursue graduate education while continuing their existing professional and personal commitments. When students begin their studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, they join a cohort of like-minded students who are also enrolling in that particular degree program. A very real sense of community is soon established as students collaborate within their cohorts and share the intense
experiences that are part of graduate-level work at Pacifica. The MA/PhD Mythological Studies program is currently accepting applications. For more information visit http://pacifica.edu or call (805) 969-3626 x305.
Calls for Work/Papers/Articles/Proposals/Presentations
The Museletter is seeking writers of book reviews, “Profiles” of organizations and individuals, “Poems as Process,” “Happenings” reports on conferences and other creative arts therapies events, “Chapbook” poems of up to 20 lines (with brief accompanying narrative about the therapeutic aspects of writing the poem), interviews with NAPT’s Muses, poets and creative arts therapies practitioners and feature articles for future issues. The Editor welcomes proposals three or more weeks in advance of submission deadlines. As we are unable to publish all the submissions we receive, please refer to issues of the Museletter for general style and content or query the Editor before submitting a proposal or article. See this issue for upcoming deadlines and email [email protected] for more information or with your ideas.
The Journal of Poetry Therapy: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research, and Education (Promoting Growth and Healing Through Language, Symbol, and Story) (www.tandf.co.uk/Journals/titles/08893675.asp) is an interdisciplinary journal seeking manuscripts on the use of the language arts in therapeutic, educational and community-building capacities. The Journal purview includes bibliotherapy, healing and writing, journal therapy, narrative therapy and creative expression. The Journal welcomes a wide variety of scholarly articles including theoretical, historical, literary, clinical, practice, education and evaluative studies. All manuscripts will be submitted for blind review to the JPT editorial board. Maximum length of full-length articles is 30 pages (typed, double-spaced, nonsexist language). Style should conform to
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the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association (5th ed.). All articles must be original material, not previously published or soon to be published elsewhere. Manuscripts should be submitted in electronic format (MS Word) as an e-mail attachment to Nicholas Mazza, PhD, Editor, Journal of Poetry Therapy, at [email protected]. A special issue on the theme of “Bridging the Gap: Creative Expression and Military Service Members, Veterans, and their Families” also been announced; please email for information.
Submissions are now being accepted for publication in the on-line resource base All Things Healing (www.allthingshealing.com), bringing together a worldwide community of individuals and organizations dedicated to informing and educating people on topics relating to alternative healing of mind, body and spirit. Seeking all articles addressing innovative use of poetry/story for healing, poetry with healing message, testimonials on successful application of poetry in community or for therapeutic use, journal writing and other therapeutic writing process. Reprints and multiple submissions acceptable. Please email submissions to Healing Poetry Editor Susan de Wardt at [email protected].
Call for Narratives in the Reflective Practice section of the Journal, Patient Education and Counseling. This section is comprised of selected narratives reflecting on healthcare practice. Reflective Practice provides a voice for physicians and other healthcare providers, patients and their family members, trainees and medical educators. The title emphasizes the importance of reflection in our learning and how our patient care and self-care, like other health care provider skills, can be improved through reflective practice. We welcome personal narratives on caring, patient-provider relationships, humanism in healthcare, professionalism and its challenges, patients’ perspectives, and collaboration in patient care and counseling. Most narratives will describe personal or professional experiences that provide a lesson
applicable to caring, humanism and relationship in health care.
Submit manuscripts through the Patient Education and Counseling on-line electronic submission system at ees.elsevier.com/pec. Patient Education and Counseling is an international journal indexed in Medline and thirteen other related indexes. Manuscripts, including narratives, are peer reviewed. We aim to publish one narrative in each monthly issue of the journal.
If you would like an electronic copy of the editorial describing the Reflective Practice section, “Sharing Stories: Narrative Medicine in an Evidence-Based World,” please e-mail David Hatem, MD, at [email protected] or Elizabeth Rider, MSW, MD, at [email protected].
The Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal, which publishes on a variety of subjects relevant to Art Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapies, is seeking submissions. For more information visit www.catainfo.ca.
Resources
The website of the National Association for Poetry Therapy has resources on events, training and more. Visit http://www.poetrytherapy.org.
The Transformative Language Arts concentration at Goddard College has extensive resource pages on poetry therapy, poetics and poetry, expressive and creative writing, drama therapy, education and development, facilitation and leadership, journal writing, literacy and linguistics and language, memoir and life stories, mythology and much more. The resource pages include thousands of weblinks and very extensive bibliographies. You can click and visit many sites of people doing all kinds of poetry therapy-related work around the world! Please visit the TLA Resource Page at www.TLAResources.wordpress.com and if you have any additions, please contact Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg at [email protected].
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Networking/Get Involved
Ed. Note: This section of PoemNation provides a forum for NAPTers to exchange ideas and contact information pertaining to specific work being undertaken outside of the realm of NAPT proper. Please send your text of 150 words maximum to [email protected] with the subject line: PoemNation Networking.
Research Projects
Ed. Note: This section provides students and researchers a forum for obtaining information from and establishing connections with the poetry therapy community. Send information about your research projects, including what information you are seeking, from whom, for what purpose and by when (maximum of 200 words) to [email protected] with the subject line: PoemNation: Research Projects.
Opportunities for Credential Holders
IFBPT (formerly NFBPT) is actively seeking new members for its Board of Directors. As the Federation continues to expand its outreach globally we are in need of strong advocates willing and ready to support our mission of setting and maintaining standards for practice and training for our profession. Board service will strengthen your understanding of ethical standards of practice and your connection to the professional community as you help strengthen the public perception of biblio/therapy as a creditable creative arts therapy. Any credential holder in good standing may apply by submitting a resume and letter of intent by email to Linda Barnes at [email protected].
Opportunities for Trainees
Ed. Note: This section of PoemNation provides a space to spread the word about opportunities for trainees to become directly involved in poetry therapy work and practice. Please send your text of 100 words maximum to
[email protected] with the subject line: PoemNation: Trainees.
Products & Services
Videos of NAPT conference keynote poets, including Rafael Campo (Miami, 2003), Li-Young Lee (Costa Mesa, 2004) Gregory Orr (St. Louis, 2005), Lawson Inada (Portland, OR, 2007) and Patricia Smith (Minneapolis, 2008) as well as Ken Gorelick (Keynote Speaker, 1998) are available on DVD for $12 each, which includes priority mailing, or receive three for $25. Also available for $12 is the 2007 Rattlebox Open Mic session. The three LaperTapes documentary DVDs on poetry as healing are $20 each, including priority mailing. These are “The Truth About Ourselves: How Poetry Heals,” “Tell All the Truth: How Poetry Heals A Multicultural Society” and “Moving Towards Truth: Poetry, Motion and Wholeness.” As a package, all three are specially priced at $40 (one free!). Please email orders or requests for further information to [email protected].
SAVE THE DATE
NAPT Annual ConferenceApril 23-26, 2015Near Asheville, North CarolinaSee poetrytherapy.org for details.
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Chapbook
Chapbook
Contributed by Lisa Marie Smith, MD—Spokane, Washington
I was delighted to begin my training in poetry therapy this year, but I harbored some anxiety about the emphasis on group work. Although I have training in group therapy, I am more comfortable and experienced working with patients individually. My first encounter with a poetry therapy group was the triple workshop at the NAPT conference. I found that this group and its facilitator worked in some familiar ways, but I also experienced something new and powerful—the poem as a centering presence in the group. This strong impression was enhanced some weeks later by a stimulating discussion with my supervisor. As I reflected on how the poem is centering for the group, but lightly so, a poetic response began to take form. Nests and seeds were the realia of the triple workshop, so these images were in the back of my mind. I was also full of impressions from other workshops, presentations, reading, an online poetry course, and my writing group. “Free” is a distillation from all of these new experiences. I am now looking forward to working with groups, in the presence of poetry!
Free
Poem, set free by its author, alights—a centering presenceamong us.It invites,invites all voices to speak it, all sensitivitiesto feel it, all experiencesto come to it.It is not wounded by rejection, or pained by a fresh response.It welcomes all, all possibilities,as new breaths in its life.It neither guards its seeds, nor force-feeds,and we are free, freeto take and create,or not.