Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem Making [Paperback]

Now, as an English teacher in a community college, I get a similar response from my own students, most of whom haven't read much poetry, find it difficult or overwhelming, and don't really see the point.

Even sadder, neither of us have believed we can write poetry. Instead, we have believed that poetry is something only a chosen few can do, something that requires mastering a certain form or stanzaic structure or tapping into the Muse at some deeper level of creativity than most of us are capable of.

It's too bad that only recently have we had John Fox's book Poetic Medicine to show us what poetry really is or can be, a means not only of discovery or creative expression, but also of deep emotional and spiritual healing.

As Rachel Naomi Remen points out in the Preface, "Poetry is simply speaking the truth...and one of the best kept secrets in this technologically oriented culture is that simply speaking the truth heals."

Fox helps us get at our truth and thus heal, via a range of exercises that explore such territory as personal relationships, loss, illness, our connection to the earth, love and pain between parent and child, and the use of traditional poetic tools to merge the spiritual and creative.

These exercises are hugged on either side by text which combines Fox's personal insights and experience, both as a poet and poetry therapist, with concrete examples from his own life and those of former workshop participants. Poems from friends and students, as well as pertinent quotes from other writers, complement and enrich Fox's words.

But these words are not just for those of us who already fancy ourselves poets or writers. One of the great characteristics of this and Fox's other book, Finding What You Didn't Lose, is that Fox, like Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones and Susan Woolridge in Poemcrazy, give us permission to use writing to discover our own selves.

As in his workshops, Fox's kindness, spiritual depth, and true belief that poetry can help us express the inexpressible come through loud and clear in his tone. He is someone who listens deeply, pays attention to his inner world, and by example, helps us do the same.

John's choice of chapter titles are in themselves poetic: "The Fragile Bond" -- expressing poems of pain and love between parent and child, "Landscapes of Relationships -- reflecting on intimacy, marriage and longing, "When God Sighs" -- making poems about loss, illness and death.

As an instructor of a poetry course for seniors, I used many of the exercises in POETIC MEDICINE. Participants who often came hesitantly to the class, were delighted when they discovered they were able to express themselves in poetic form. We also worked with some of the tools and basic elements of poetry which are nicely presented in the book.

POETIC MEDICINE is a book one could choose to use individually too. Expressing personal sorrow and love, poem-making to heal societal wounds, or celebrating earth and nature are all avenues one can explore within its pages.

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD says in the Preface, "Poetry is simply speaking truth", and John's unique book helps us to find truth and to create poems from the heart. It is good medicine for, as Dr. Remen says, "simply speaking truth heals."