Southern California Poetry Therapy Network Annual Training Intensive

News and Resources from the National Association for Poetry Therapy
Volume XXVIIIVolume XXVIIIVolume XXVIIIVolume XXVIIIVolume XXVIII • • • • • Number 3 • November 2007Number 3 • November 2007Number 3 • November 2007Number 3 • November 2007Number 3 • November 2007
NAPT Executive Committee (2005-2007) President
Diane Allerdyce Vice-Presidents
Nick Mazza Publications Chair
Karen vanMeenen
NAPT Board Members Evelyn Torton Beck Barbara Bethea (Diversity) Ted Bowman
Geri Chavis Nick Mazza Hannah Menkin
A Praise of Muses Jennifer Bosveld 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 Grace Paley Linda Pastan James Pennebaker Luis J. Rodriguez
Myra Sklarew Henry Taylor
(Continued on page 4)
Southern California Poetry TherapySouthern California Poetry TherapySouthern California Poetry TherapySouthern California Poetry TherapySouthern California Poetry Therapy Network Annual Training IntensiveNetwork Annual Training IntensiveNetwork Annual Training IntensiveNetwork Annual Training IntensiveNetwork Annual Training Intensive Contributed by J. Elaine McCracken
The Southern California Poetry Therapy Network met for our annual training intensive on August 26, 2007, at the beautiful and inspirational Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino. Each presenter brought the theme of mindfulness into their session, and demonstrated how we, as “wordworkers,” can become more present in our facilitations.
Laura Landau discussed the benefits and purpose of meditation in “Word-working with Clay.” We meditate so that our minds become strong, clear and stable. With practice, the meditator learns to hold her mind to the object she is meditating on, and ultimately to be present in her life. With a stable mind, we are better able to help the people we’re working with. There are many different ways to meditate, but the main point of the practice is to learn to focus your mind.
For this workshop, Laura demonstrated how you can use work with clay in conjunc- tion with writing to practice mindfulness. She cautioned that the facilitator does not want to give the students too much time knead- ing, because that invites discursive thought. Remember to honor your first thought as your best thought. You can always go back and edit later. Remember the concept of “beginner’s mind.” You’re given a lump of clay. What is there? You’re given a blank page. What is there? You’re given a life. What is there? You are there!
Thomas Hedberg, in “Mindful/Spiritual Poetry,” related a story which demonstrated
the concept of “amygdala hijacking.” When a people experience an emotional scare, the thoughts that were on their mind previous to the shock often disappear. Poetry can help us get to the most genuine, deepest parts of ourselves. In sacred listening, you will listen with your mind, your eyes, your presence. Learn to listen between the lines of what is said or written. Thomas relayed the Leonard Cohen line: “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” Rob- ert Carroll responded to the Cohen quote with the statement, “Sometimes all the words don’t get in. Healing words, like rain, might get through the cracks.”
In his session, Robert spoke about how we can use our breath intentionally. In the beginning of meditation, our mind is un- stable. Keep your focus on your breath, and keep your space small. Try the three breath method: Breath One - Focus inward, Breath Two - Experience your body, Breath Three - Give yourself in communion (the I is with others).
Deep breathing helps us to focus. New studies show that children do better in school when they spend ten minutes a day in a deep breathing exercise. Modern poetry has been based on voice, therefore breath, since the early 1900s. When you read a poem out loud, the poem will read like a modern person talking. Punctuation, line breaks, and spacing guides the reader to pause, slow down or stop. When writing a poem, try some abdominal
2 The Museletter
••••• The Museletter is published in March, July and November by The National Association for Poetry Therapy. All copyrights remain with the individual contributors.
••••• Please address all newsletter submissions to: Karen vanMeenen, Editor The Museletter [email protected]
••••• Address all subscription inquiries as well as general NAPT inquiries, memberships, address changes and administrative business to:
NAPT 777 E. Atlantic Avenue, #243 Delray Beach, FL 33483 Toll-Free 1-866-844-NAPT E-mail: [email protected]
••••• Visit NAPT’s website at www.poetrytherapy.org
In This Issue: July 2007In This Issue: July 2007In This Issue: July 2007In This Issue: July 2007In This Issue: July 2007
From the Editor
Karen vanMeenen
Welcome to the latest issue of The Museletter , where those working with the healing power of words come together to share their thoughts and experiences. This issue’s feature article is an expanded “Poems as Process” column as the modeling process inherent in this section has proven useful for many readers. If you would like to contribute to this column in an upcoming is-
sue, please contact me at [email protected].
Another highlight of this issue is the announcement of more details about our April 2-6, 2008 conference in Minneapolis, “Reaching Out and Reaching In: Expressive Writ- ing for Growth and Healing.” See within for exciting news from our
hardworking conference planning team and be sure to book your hotel room by March 1.
Finally, it is ironic to be writing this when the weather even here in upstate New York is breaking heat records into October, but wishing you all a warm, peaceful and poetic winter.
ErratumErratumErratumErratumErratum
In an article in the July 2007 issue, the term “Tikkun Olam” was incorrectly cited as “Olam Tikkun.” We regret the error.
Contributors to This IssueContributors to This IssueContributors to This IssueContributors to This IssueContributors to This Issue
Diane Allerdyce, PhD, CAPF; Geri Chavis, CPT, LP; Catherine Conway, MS, CPT, LCPC; Beverly A. Jackson; Perie Longo, PhD, RPT-M/S, MFT; J. Elaine McCracken, MLS; Sherry Reiter, PhD, LCSW, RPT/BCT; Karen vanMeenen, MA, CAPF; Lila Lizabeth Weisberger, MS, CASAC, RPT/MS.
From the Editor ................................................................ 2
President’s Message ......................................................... 3
Feature: Poems as Process ............................................... 5
NAPT News ................................................................... 12
Please note that the email addressPlease note that the email addressPlease note that the email addressPlease note that the email addressPlease note that the email address [email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]
is no longer in use.is no longer in use.is no longer in use.is no longer in use.is no longer in use. To contact the Editor, please use:To contact the Editor, please use:To contact the Editor, please use:To contact the Editor, please use:To contact the Editor, please use:
[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]
November 2007 3
President’s Message
Dear NAPT Members and Friends, Late last month, I visited a place I had not encountered
before, except vicariously through the faces of my many immigrant students and my partner’s stories of childhood. I had the opportunity to visit Haiti as the newest member of a delegation working with the Haitian government to create a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on the island of La Gonave. The five days we spent there were filled with amazingly various experiences, from meetings with Parliament and elected officials including the Prime Minister and a fortuitous meeting with President Preval, to our attendance at a traditional feast in Pointe-a-Raquette, LaGonave, as part of the Festival of St. Louis, their patron saint. My heart rose and fell as I tried to reconcile the sites of extreme beauty on the island and in parts of the countryside with the realization of nearly hopeless poverty in the inner city of Port-au-Prince. I came back from Haiti with an upset stomach and a severe case of swimmer’s ear, but the memories I have of this Caribbean island are of the children, and of their hopes, and of a par- ticularly poignant evocation of the power of poetry to reach out across cultures, which I witnessed as the sun went down upon my first day in Haiti:
It was balmy that late-August evening after our long day of travel to PAP and exploration of the narrow, winding, bumpy streets that took us from the Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport to the hotel for check-in and a meeting, and then to the top of the city above Petionville for the birth- day party of our colleague’s brother, Yves. We arrived intact at a hillside home and opened the doors of the parked car on a cobblestone driveway in complete darkness. A few candles flickered inside the house several yards away, and we were told that the hurricane of two weeks before had left much of the city with only intermittent electricity. A slight breeze greeted us, though, and crickets were singing like songbirds in the darkness. I could scarcely believe they were crickets at all, so melodious their song. The rest of the evening was even more sensory and musical. It turned out that the gather- ing, in addition to food and drink and conversation in three languages among the 30 or more people assembled on the lanai, featured the acoustic music of a family who sang into the candlelit night for hours. The sweet troubadour held her toddler on her lap as her father and friends played guitars and a drum. To my surprise and awe, every so often the music would stop, and a person among the guests would recite an original poem or read a piece of classic poetry from a book. It was all in French, my weakest of the three languages, and I could follow only the emotion of the verses, but it was
amazing—to be in a country so magical, enjoying an im- promptu poetry reading for hour upon late-night hour, on that introductory excursion into the heart of a close-knit community. And to know that it was poetry that greeted me to this new culture was a welcoming sign.
I tend to see signs often, in nature or in human experiences, and to look at them for guidance along the steep and bumpy roads we traverse in everyday life. Since becoming NAPT president, I have been also listening between the lines of communications that I at times understand clearly and at times just listen to, allowing meaning to emerge on its own terms. And as so many of us know through the therapeutic application of the spoken word, meaning has a way of making itself known, as long as we listen.
So I, and the rest of the Board, are listening too—in a series of conference calls that will continue, monthly or so, until we meet in person again at and after the conference in Minneapolis. One of the themes that has been emerging as the NAPT membership continues and the 2008 conference planning solidifies is that NAPT is re-thinking its organiza- tional identity. NAPT is seeking, for instance, to develop a vision even more distinct than it now has from that of its sister organization, the Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy, which oversees all aspects of training and credentialing. Re- cent discussions have focused on:
WelcomeWelcomeWelcomeWelcomeWelcome Contributed by Diane Allerdyce
NAPT President Diane Allerdyce with children in Haiti
4 The Museletter
a) The need to formalize and organize more community outreach initiatives;
b) An exploration of the idea of “networks” or, as Niall Hickey put it in a recent email from Ireland, “the identity of local structures, both within and outside of the States”;
c) A focus on the role of educators using poetry in their professional work, and especially on ways to support them at the conference and otherwise;
d) The possibility of creating more publication opportunities for creative writers and scholarly writers; and
e) Ways to celebrate the diverse applications of poetry and the written/spoken word across cultures, national boundaries and racial lines.
The Board welcomes your input! Please send any one of us your ideas and we will listen. We will listen for awhile, and consider, and think, and let ideas reach out across any divisions to strengthen the organization that makes NAPT what it is at its best—a community whose members pause in the darkness to tell each other what the Miami-based Hai- tian poet and playwright Jan Mapou expresses in his poem “Fanm Peyi Mwen” (Women of My Country):
breathing before you begin. This will help to ground you and take you deeper into yourself.
Perie Longo advised us to find a mindful practice for ourselves in “Mindful Processing of Client’s Words.” We need to be practicing our writing and processing our emotions. Poetry as a focus can help us become more present when we are talking to our clients and processing their poems. Perie noted that people don’t often claim their feelings in poems. To help a client go deeper, ask them to change their third person point of view to a first person “I” statement. To help clients relax before reading, it may be useful to ask everyone to “take a deep breath.” Breathing helps bring everybody back into the moment and more open to listening to the poem and the person reading. Perie spoke a bit about group dynamics, the interplay between participants, and the facilitator’s part in help- ing to get in between the words. Keeping participants focused and in the moment is one of the great challenges of group work.
Hannah Menkin has found that different “tools” can be used to set intention for a meditation. In preparation for the environment and self, one can create a sacred space that is free of noise and clutter. Ritual is another tool created by having a set time of day to meditate, using certain colors, scents, objects or food; bathing; or keeping a journal and writing instrument nearby to record thoughts. Using our senses, various objects, sounds or special music can also en- hance a meditation practice. Perie also offered a role-playing exercise in a group poetry therapy session.
Near the end of this intense workshop, participants were given time to go out onto the retreat campus and find a quiet place to reflect and write. From the solid earth beneath my feet, to the dark pond that hid its contents, to the salamander that ran down the tree and froze while I took a photo, to the wasps that chased me out of the woods, I experienced life all around me, breathing and watching and listening. A poem was born.
Each facilitator also prepared a packet of poems and other useful writings on the overarching theme of mindfulness. Many thanks to the presenters and participants of this workshop.
Annual Training Intensive Annual Training Intensive Annual Training Intensive Annual Training Intensive Annual Training Intensive (con’t.)
Some recommended poems for mindfulness
“The Ten Thousand Things” by Anne Silsbee (from Orioling) “Zen of Housework” by Al Zolynas (from The Book of Luminous Things) “Connections” by Nancy Wood (from This Place I Know) “Breathing Meditation” by Thich Nhat Hanh (from Blooming Lotus) “Go Among Trees and Sit Still” by Wendell Berry (from Sabbaths)
Remember … yes remember We’re all the same, The same branches On a flame-tree Blossoming … Blossoming Blossoming with life In the four seasons of rain …
November 2007 5
Poems as ProcessPoems as ProcessPoems as ProcessPoems as ProcessPoems as Process As this column has proven to be one of the most popular elements of The Museletter, in this issue we offer an expanded selection, with poems offered by Ted Kooser in his “Ameri- can Life in Poetry” column and writing prompts by NAPT Past President Perie Longo. NAPTers interested in contrib- uting to this column are encouraged to contact the editor at [email protected].
Writing SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting Suggestions
American Life in Poetry: Column 96 By Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-06
Grief can endure a long, long time. A deep loss is very reluctant to let us set it aside, to push it into a corner of memory. Here the Arkansas poet Andrea Hollander Budy gives us a look at one family’s adjustment to a death.
For Weeks after the Funeral
The house felt like the opera, the audience in their seats, hushed, ready, but the cast not yet arrived.
And if I said anything to try to appease the anxious air, my words would hang alone like the single chandelier
waiting to dim the auditorium, but still too huge, too prominent, too bright, its light announcing only itself, bringing more
emptiness into the emptiness.
Copyright (c) 2006 by Andrea Hollander Budy. First published in Five Points and included in her book, Woman in the Painting. Reprinted by permission of the author and Autumn House Press.
Writing poetry can give us the chance to look back at a situation where we didn’t know what to say or how to describe what we were feeling. Reflect on such a time, perhaps beginning with what the setting felt like (e.g., “the opera”). Describe what you felt like at the time and upon reflection, follow your words and allow them to speak your truth.
As another option, describe a time of emptiness.
6 The Museletter
Writing SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting Suggestions Chances are we all have a favorite tree with which we have a special relationship, or a shelter not far from our door, where we have experienced complete peace, as the author of this poem describes. She takes us right into that moment so we almost hear the rain and feel her happiness. Write of such a place for you, describing the smallest details, such as the name of the tree, where it is, what took you there, and most importantly, what was happening outside and how that affected your inner life.
Some of the most telling poetry being written in our country today has to do with the smallest and briefest of pleasures. Here Marie Howe of New York captures a magical moment: sitting in the shelter of a leafy tree with the rain falling all around.
The Copper Beech
Immense, entirely itself, it wore that yard like a dress,
with limbs low enough for me to enter it and climb the crooked ladder to where
I could lean against the trunk and practice being alone. One day, I heard the sound before I saw it, rain fell darkening the sidewalk.
Sitting close to the center, not very high in the branches, I heard it hitting the high leaves, and I was happy,
watching it happen without it happening to me.
Reprinted from What the Living Do (W. W. Norton & Co., 1997). Copyright (c) 1997 by Marie Howe.
November 2007 7
The title of the poem speaks of possibilities for writing: finding the poem in a letter written to us, words written on a billboard or sign, or any of the places Ted Kooser suggests. Once I found a poem about world peace printed on the inside a box of granola! Unfortunately, the granola was stale. I cut the box apart to keep the poem, but lost it. This leads to another idea, writing about a lost poem you can’t find, but you remember what it was about, almost, and write it again. Lastly, you could write a “letter poem” to someone else about how to live a “happier” life.
There is a type of poem, the Found Poem, that records an author’s discovery of the beauty that occasionally occurs in the everyday discourse of others. Such a poem might be words scrawled on a wadded scrap of paper, or buried in the classified ads, or on a billboard by the road. The poet makes it his or her poem by holding it up for us to look at. Here the Washington, DC, poet Joshua Weiner directs us to the poetry in a letter written not by him but to him.
Found Letter
What makes for a happier life, Josh, comes to this: Gifts freely given, that you never earned; Open affection with your wife and kids; Clear pipes in winter, in summer screens that fit; Few days in court, with little consequence; A quiet mind, a strong body, short hours In the office; close friends who speak the truth; Good food, cooked simply; a memory that’s rich Enough to build the future with; a bed In which to love, read, dream, and re-imagine love; A warm, dry field for laying down in sleep, And sleep to trim the long night coming; Knowledge of who you are, the wish to be None other; freedom to forget the time; To know the soul exceeds where it’s confined Yet does not seek the terms of its release, Like a child’s kite catching at the wind That flies because the hand holds tight the line.
Poem copyright (c) 2006 by Joshua Weiner. Reprinted from From the Book of Giants (University of Chicago Press, 2006), by permission of the author.
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Think of a difficult time in your life, or one that you are going through right now, and write about how you “carry on.” Where do you go to escape for awhile? With whom? At one such time in my life, my husband and I (after his diagno- sis) went on a long hike into the mountains on a very hot day and soaked in a cold creek until we were truly numb. Today it is 100 degrees and writing that brings a smile. This poem demonstrates eloquently how survival is often a moment of observation. Note the image of the sun lighting up an orchard and the couple “holding hands” in the dark.
Here is a lovely poem about survival by Patrick Phillips of New York. People sometimes ask me “What are poems for?” and “Matinee” is an example of the kind of writing that serves its readers, that shows us a way of carrying on.
Matinee
After the biopsy, after the bone scan, after the consult and the crying,
for a few hours no one could find them, not even my sister, because it turns out
they’d gone to the movies. Something tragic was playing, something epic,
and so they went to the comedy with their popcorn and their cokes,
the old wife whispering everything twice, the old husband cupping a palm to his ear,
as the late sun lit up an orchard behind the strip mall, and they sat in the dark holding hands.
Poem copyright (c) 2006 by Patrick Phillips, whose latest book is Chattahoochee (University of Arkansas Press, 2004). Reprinted from the Greensboro Review (Fall 2006), No. 80, with permission of the author.
This poem reminds me of Kahlil Gibran’s poem about how our children come through us but are not ours. Mary Jo Salter warns us that we “better hand over what you can’t have, and gracefully.” It might be interesting to write why you better do that. Another idea is to write of a time you realized your child did not belong to you, but to the greater world in pur- suit of his/her own journey. Then there is always the matter of advice that a child may seek, but not really want. How did you handle that, or how did you address her tears, when she was older? As an option, write about a relationship that ended (in one of the many ways they do), reconciling the person was not “yours” anyway.
Writing SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting Suggestions Writing SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting Suggestions
From now on they always are, for years now they always have been, but from now on you know they are, they always will be,
from now on when they cry and you say wryly to their mother, better you than me, you’d better mean it, you’d better
hand over what you can’t have, and gracefully.
Reprinted from New Letters Vol. 72, no. 3-4 (2006), by permission of the poet. Copyright (c) 2006 by Mary Jo Salter.
Though parents know that their children will grow up and away from them, will love and be loved by others, it’s a difficult thing to accept. Massachusetts poet Mary Jo Salter emphasizes the poignancy of the parent/child relationship in this perceptive and compelling poem.
Somebody Else’s Baby
November 2007 9
Our species has developed monstrous weapons that can kill not only all of us but everything else on the planet, yet when the wind rises we run for cover, as we have done for as long as we’ve been on this earth. Here’s hoping we never have the skill or arrogance to conquer the weather. And weather stories? We tell them in the same way our ancestors related encounters with fear- some dragons. This poem by Minnesota poet Warren Woessner honors the tradition by sharing an experience with a hurricane.
Alberto
When the wind clipped the whitecaps, and the flags came down before they shredded, we knew it was no nor’easter. The Blue Nose ferry stayed on course, west out of Yarmouth, while 100 miles of fog on the Bay blew away.
The Captain let us stand on the starboard bridge and scan a jagged range. Shearwaters skimmed the peaks while storm petrels hunted valleys that slowly filled with gold. Alberto blew out in the Atlantic. We came back to earth that for days might tip and sway and cast us back to sea.
Poem copyright (c) 1998 by Warren Woessner, whose book of poetry, Clear All the Rest of the Way is forthcoming from The Backwaters Press. Reprinted from Iris Rising, BkMk Press of UMKC, 1998, with permission of the author.
Writing SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting SuggestionsWriting Suggestions As Ted Kooser suggests, we can “honor the tradition” of favorite weather stories by writing about one, when we were the most inconvenienced, or frightened, when we had to run for our lives, at least to protect ourselves. Several poems have been written about Hurricane Katrina and Wilma, in recent years, the devastation in New Orleans, but what about that power outage in last summer’s heat wave? Or the earthquake when you felt that the once solid earth had morphed into Jello? A current weather “dragon” is global warming. Per- haps a poem encountering your fears or personal choices about how you deal with that might be worth examining. Note in Woessner’s poem the vivid description that brings us right into the moment.
10 The Museletter
The British writer Virginia Woolf wrote about the pleasures of having a room of one’s own. Here the Vermont poet Karin Gottshall shows us her own sort of private place.
The Raspberry Room
It was solid hedge, loops of bramble and thorny as it had to be with its berries thick as bumblebees. It drew blood just to get there, but I was queen of that place, at ten, though the berries shook like fists in the wind, daring anyone to come in. I was trying so hard to love this world—real rooms too big and full of worry to comfortably inhabit—but believing I was born to live in that cloistered green bower: the raspberry patch in the back acre of my grandparents’ orchard. I was cross- stitched and beaded by its fat, dollmaker’s needles. The effort of sliding under the heavy, spiked tangles that tore my clothes and smeared me with juice was rewarded with space, wholly mine, a kind of room out of the crush of the bushes with a canopy of raspberry dagger-leaves and a syrup of sun and birdsong. Hours would pass in the loud buzz of it, blood made it mine—the adventure of that red sting singing down my calves, the place the scratches brought me to: just space enough for a girl to lie down.
Poem copyright (c) 2007 by Karin Gottshall. Reprinted from Crocus by Karin Gottshall (Fordham University Press, 2007), with permission of the author and publisher.
The language of this poem is as delicious as the raspberries. The poem reminds me of a lesson I do with young students, to write about a “Secret Place” where they feel alone and safe from the world. Travel back in time and think of a place or “space” where you felt you were the queen or king, what you had control over, despite discomfort you may have experienced to get there. Describe this place with all of its details, both beautiful and painful. Perhaps there was adventure involved, some danger you surmounted, to discover something about yourself for the first time, something that has remained with you.
November 2007 11
The loss of youth and innocence is one of the great themes of literature. Here the California poet Kim Noriega looks deeply into a photograph from 40 years ago.
Heaven, 1963
It’s my favorite photo— captioned, “Daddy and His Sweetheart.” It’s in black and white, it’s before Pabst Blue Ribbon, before his tongue became a knife that made my mother bleed, and before he blackened my eye the time he thought I meant to end my life.
He’s standing in our yard on Porter Road beneath the old chestnut tree. He’s wearing sunglasses, a light cotton shirt, and a dreamy expression.
He’s twenty-seven. I’m two. My hair, still baby curls, is being tossed by a gentle breeze. I’m fast asleep in his arms.
From Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets (Huntington Beach, CA, Tebot Bach, 2006). Copyright (c) 2006 by Kim Noriega. Reprinted with permission of the author and Tebot Bach.
One of the wrenching things about Kim Noriega’s poem is the contrast between the title and the well-chosen details of the poem which speak of a tumultuous and abusive childhood—that is, until you reach the last stanza—a time of “Heaven” when she was two, asleep. Write from a photograph of yours that you keep around and look at often, or one you keep in your mind’s eye. Simply describe the people or the scene and what hadn’t happened yet. In the conclu- sion, you might make an observation you didn’t have at the time of the picture. My hospice group once wrote about their idea of heaven, without a photograph. That also was very effective.
Our poet this week is 16-year-old Devon Regina DeSalva of Los Angeles, California, who says she wrote this poem to get back at her mother, only to find that her mother loved the poem.
Snip Your Hair
I’ll snip your hair Cut it all off until you look like a man I will replace your weight loss bars with bars to make you gain I will cut your credit cards in half I will shrink all your clothes Every trick in the book I will try I will give all your shoes to the dog I will do it all Crazy is where you will be driven Off a cliff you will want to jump Then when I am all done I will look at you with big doughy eyes And I will say I am sorry But I have my fingers crossed
Reprinted from Untangled: Stories & Poems from the Women & Girls of WriteGirl (WriteGirl Publishers, 2006). Poem copyright (c) 2006 by WriteGirl Publishers and used by permission.
One of the most mischievous writing activities is to give your anger a place in a poem. This sixteen-year-old girl thought of all the ways she could “get back” at her mother, and had a wonderful time doing it. The mother loved reading it. What better constructive way to air anger. The poet’s impishness at the end we are all too familiar with. It might be fun to try expressing your anger at anyone with the awful things you might do to get even, with tongue-in- cheek. The poem could be to a relative, a neighbor, a friend, a co-worker, or a pet. You might even trade “anger” poems with a child and see if you could make each other laugh.
Submitted by Geri Chavis and Catherine Conway, On-site Conference Chairs
We are very much looking forward to welcoming all of you to the beautiful “Twin Cities”—a mecca for literature, visual and dramatic arts, music, and education—for NAPT’s 2008 conference “Reaching Out and Reaching In: Expres- sive Writing for Growth and Healing,” April 2-6, 2008. Filled with cultural attractions such as the Guthrie Theatre, the Minnesota History Center and the Walker Art Center, the Twin Cities is also home to the legendary Mississippi River and a lavish system of in-city lakes and surrounding parks.
A very exciting conference is shaping up at the Millen- nium Hotel, which is conveniently located right on Nicolette Mall in Downtown Minneapolis, very close to a wide variety of restaurants, nightclubs and theaters. We have two dynamic, award-winning and versatile keynoters, J. Ruth Gendler, keynote speaker, and Patricia Smith, keynote poet. In addition to addressing our group as a whole, both keynoters have agreed to facilitate a special workshop. Please see more information on these two illustrious speakers elsewhere in this Museletter.
We are planning a delightful Twin Cities/Mississippi River excursion on Wednesday, and on Thursday evening, our “meet and greet” event promises to be better than ever with playful, poetry-related activities that will encourage camaraderie and help set the tone for an enriching and memo- rable conference. Our Saturday evening event, specially designed to provide satisfying closure for conference attendees, will be facilitated by the talented, sensitive players of River’s Edge Playback Theatre. As in the past, Friday and Saturday will be packed with a diverse array of high quality workshops, and this year, we are extending a special welcome to first-time attendees who are educators and a very warm welcome to old friends who did not get to the conference this past year in Portland.
Please check the NAPT website for updates on the conference and for the conference program, which will be available in January 2008. Hotel booking information will be there as well. Please note that you will need to book your room by March 1 to take advantage of the special conference hotel rate.
Dear Poetry Therapy Friends: I write to tell you again about our extraordinary good
fortune in having been the beneficiaries of the legal services provided pro bono by the law firm of Arnold and Porter. The reason for this acknowledgement now is that our legal hero, Michael Roman Geske, is leaving the firm for an important and prestigious new job, and I want you to know a bit about our relationship with the firm and with Mike.
Here is an excerpt from my talk at our 2003 conference when I presented Arnold & Porter with NAPT’s Public Ser- vice Award:
I have the happy honor of having been asked to thank the law firm of Arnold and Porter for its generosity … in the service of our organization. In 1991, when I was president of NAPT and aware of our need to have a charitable arm to accept and provide funding for our own good works, A&P gifted us with indis- pensable help in creating the NAPT Foundation.
Where do we get such champions of the good as these? … the ones who would have agreed with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., “I say to you with sad conviction that to think great thoughts, you must be heroes as well as idealists.” They were the ones who would have been hired by Arnold and Porter, who believe in work that is pro bono publico, that legal justice is the art of the good and the fair.
Is there some connection between them and us? …They, like us, listen exquisitely; like us, they use language deliberately. They gather the disparate frag- ments of story and history to create a narrative that has meaning and wholeness. Redressing wrongs is a vital aspect of healing.
…When they heard of the gross injustice that had been done to NAPT that required legal redress way beyond our organization’s means, these powerful advocates for what is right and good gifted us again with their brilliance and determination.
Arnold and Porter attorneys, Gillian Wood and Mike Geske say, “Don’t thank us yet. Don’t thank us until you get back what you’ve lost.” Oh, no, again. Of course, that will be lovely, but what you’re doing for us now is pure poetry, and who better to appreci- ate it than we.
A Letter of RecognitionA Letter of RecognitionA Letter of RecognitionA Letter of RecognitionA Letter of Recognition
November 2007 13
So, I present our heroes with the NAPT Public Ser- vice Award inscribed, “For their active promotion of fairness, the public good, and the arts.” And, “Jus- tice is Truth in Action,” Benjamin Disraeli.
…Mike accepted NAPT’s Public Service award for the firm. In the months that followed, he continued to work on NAPT’s behalf and kept us informed of the challenges and eventual success thanks to his and his team’s efforts.
Two years later, he was the Federation’s champion in researching and addressing the legal issues relating to training and credentials. Here’s a copy of part of a note I wrote to him after the 2006 Federation and mentor/supervisor meetings at the NAPT conference in Boston:
Dear Mike: For the Federation, I want to express deep apprecia- tion. We are so grateful for your expertise, meticu- lous preparation, eloquence, and exceptional patience with our board and the mentor/supervisors.
The many hours of groundwork you have dedicated to our issues were so apparent in your three separate presentations: two to our board and another at the mentor/supervisor Roundtable. That you could address each of these audiences with clear information, grace, and good humor was abundant evidence of your professional skill. Beyond that, several of us have had the distinct perception that you bring not only that professionalism to our cause, but also a caring for our field and its people.
With utmost gratitude and respect, Peggy Osna Heller, President NFB/PT
We wish you all the best, Mike.
Peggy Osna Heller for the National Federation of Biblio/Poetry Therapy
FindingsFindingsFindingsFindingsFindings
Querencia: Feeling SafeQuerencia: Feeling SafeQuerencia: Feeling SafeQuerencia: Feeling SafeQuerencia: Feeling Safe and at Homeand at Homeand at Homeand at Homeand at Home
I am in the dentist’s chair and after multiple shots of Novocain, the probing, pushing, pulling begins. The sound of the drill is pain. Without exaggeration it is a non-stop four-and-a-half-hour session, which must have broken a record.
I have my ipod connected to my noise-canceling ear- phones and a pad and pen on my lap. I need to write. I can find safety if I can escape by writing. I can create distance from the distress by writing freely and assuming the role of reporter.
My head is back, and I can’t see what I am writing. I let my finger mark my place so I don’t write over and over in the same space. I write in three voices: the conversations in the office between dentist and assistant and between dentist and periodontist, lyrics from the music or lines from the poems I am listening to, my own thoughts and feelings. My favorite line is the periodontist saying to me, “If you feel anything, tell me.”
An excerpt from my notebook at the dentist’s office:
FFFFFinding the Root of the Rootinding the Root of the Rootinding the Root of the Rootinding the Root of the Rootinding the Root of the Root One of my precious teeth is being extracted Half of a root of a decaying tooth splinters off My dentist cannot remove the root She is breathing hard. How bad is this? I am looking for querencia
She is looking for a periodontist He places a heavy hand on my head It feels like a benediction, not a vise. Four probing hands in my overstretched mouth, more Novocain: cutting, pulling. “It’s counterintuitive,” the periodontist says, “But we must remove bone.” “Why the heck is it so hard to get it out?,” he speaks aloud And to me, “If you feel anything, tell me.”
I think of Rumi’s poem “The Guest House”:
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.
Contributed by Lila Lizabeth Weisberger
Your input is needed!Your input is needed!Your input is needed!Your input is needed!Your input is needed! If you have a special book that you recommend be sold at our bookstore at the 2008 conference in Minneapolis, please contact Ted Bowman at [email protected]. Please include the title, author, publisher, publication date and ISBN if possible. Requests are due by January 1, 2008.
14 The Museletter
Animals have querencia by instinct. The golden plover knows every year where to fly when it migrates. Rattlesnakes know by the temperature when to lie dormant. In winter, spar- rows and chickadees know where their food is and return to the same spot again and again. Querencia is a matter of survival. A nest, a mole’s tunnel, is querencia.
Humans have querencia, too. We know where we feel most at home. Our bodies tell us, if we listen. There are certain seasons during which we feel more at ease. Certain times of day when we feel safe and more relaxed. Certain climates. Terrain. Even the clothes we wear make us feel more at home.
In a 1999 interview, Norman Mailer described Provincetown, Massachusetts, the town he lives in, as his zone of privacy, his querencia where he is free and offered sanctuary.
In February 2007, in my online course, The Healing Fountain, we were discussing the place/s we feel safe. I responded to the prompt by writing about a place that I re- membered feeling safe as a child.
You may want to think about your own querencia, or perhaps you already know that it’s when you are one with nature or in a specific setting or with a special person.
A Leg to Stand OnA Leg to Stand OnA Leg to Stand OnA Leg to Stand OnA Leg to Stand On
Summer long
summer after summer swimming in the ocean scared of the bottom afraid of the crabs afraid of the living things afraid of being bitten and nibbled afraid to have my feet touch down
I’d swim to my sister and rest my feet on hers I’d get my breath back and then I’d swim off
Over and over again summer after summer and she would always accept my toes landing on hers I always had an extra leg to stand on!
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture...
No. I don’t want to let my house be a guest house. I want to feel safe. With pen and pad at hand I feel some control of what/who enters into my sanctuary. Later, I’ll think more about who and what is sweeping my house empty of its furniture. For now I want to observe my furniture and my unin- vited visitors. Perhaps later I will think of them as guests and learn from the experience of seeing them in all their dimen- sions and knowing them by name.
One thing I know is that the writing I am doing comforts me, and is the medicine I need. I am learning: understanding how the writing is protecting me and leading me to my querencia. When I am writing, I am calling myself by name and creating my own safety.
From the book Querencia by Stephen Bodio, a quota- tion by William Buckley:
Querencia: The word doesn’t translate. It is used in Spanish to designate that mysterious little area in the bullring that catches the fancy of the fighting bull when he charges in. He imagines it his sanctuary: when parked there. He supposes he cannot be hurt … So it is, borrowing the term, that one can speak of one’s “querencia” to mean that little, un- specified area in life’s arena where one feels safe, serene.
In the book Writing Toward Home, Georgia Heard describes a bullfight:
The wounded bull retreated to a spot to the left of the gate through which he had entered, to rest, it seemed. He had found his querencia: a place where he felt safe and was therefore at his most dangerous. The matador tries not to let the bull find this place, because it increases the danger to himself. For the bull, it is a place where he believes he can survive this unfair game. Unfortunately and cruelly, he almost never does. It is said that if the same bull were to fight more than once in the ring, every matador would die; once an animal learns the game and stands in his power, he cannot be defeated….
November 2007 15
2008 ANNUAL NAPT CONFERENCE2008 ANNUAL NAPT CONFERENCE2008 ANNUAL NAPT CONFERENCE2008 ANNUAL NAPT CONFERENCE2008 ANNUAL NAPT CONFERENCE
REACHING OUT AND REACHING IN:REACHING OUT AND REACHING IN:REACHING OUT AND REACHING IN:REACHING OUT AND REACHING IN:REACHING OUT AND REACHING IN: EXPRESSIVE WRITING FOR GROWTH AND HEALINGEXPRESSIVE WRITING FOR GROWTH AND HEALINGEXPRESSIVE WRITING FOR GROWTH AND HEALINGEXPRESSIVE WRITING FOR GROWTH AND HEALINGEXPRESSIVE WRITING FOR GROWTH AND HEALING
Keynote Poet:Keynote Poet:Keynote Poet:Keynote Poet:Keynote Poet: Patricia SmithPatricia SmithPatricia SmithPatricia SmithPatricia Smith
Keynote Speaker: Ruth J. GendlerKeynote Speaker: Ruth J. GendlerKeynote Speaker: Ruth J. GendlerKeynote Speaker: Ruth J. GendlerKeynote Speaker: Ruth J. Gendler author of The Book of Qualities
and editor of Changing Light: The Eternal Cycle of Night and
Day
• Twin Cities/Mississippi River excursion • “meet and greets”
• performance by River’s Edge Playback Theatre • pre- and post-conference workshops
• dynamic and engaging conference sessions
APRIL 2-6, 2008APRIL 2-6, 2008APRIL 2-6, 2008APRIL 2-6, 2008APRIL 2-6, 2008
Please check the NAPT website for updates on the conference and for the conference program, which will be available in January 2008. Hotel booking information will be there as well. Please note that you will need to book your room by March 1 to take advantage of the special conference hotel rate.
• Four-time winner of the National Poetry Slam individual championship titles
• Winner of the first- ever Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Poetry, a Pushcart, the Paterson Poetry Prize and the Chautauqua Literary Journal Award in Poetry
• Teahouse of the Almighty was named the best poetry book of 2006 by About.com
16 The Museletter
NAPT Member NewsNAPT Member NewsNAPT Member NewsNAPT Member NewsNAPT Member News Please send your professional news announcements of 150 words or fewer in the format exampled below to the Editor at [email protected] by the published deadline for each issue. Please note: we do not list events or awards that are listed elsewhere in The Museletter (e.g., Poetry Alive awards and awarding of CPTs and RPTs). Members wishing to publicize these accomplishments in the monthly member e-newsletter are encouraged to email the information to Mary Caprio at [email protected].
Lapidus is NAPT’s sister organization in the UK. Its Cornwall branch has just published Prompted to Write, which gives a vivid account of three years of workshops and peer training in Cornwall, with over 30 contributors, including NAPT members Geri Chavis, Mari Alschuler and Ted Bowman and American poet George Wallace, alongside many eminent UK practitioners. It was edited by Victoria Field and Zeeba Ansari and has a foreword by London poet, Moniza Alvi. The cost for U.S. orders is $15 (which includes s&h). To order, please email [email protected].
Along with a chapter being published in Prompted to Write (see above), Ted Bowman (St. Paul, MN) has a chapter in Dying, Bereavement and the Healing Arts (2007, edited by Gillie Bolton) and articles currently or forthcoming in Lapidus Quarterly, the journal Illness, Crisis and Loss, the British journal Bereavement Care and The Journal for Po- etry Therapy.
Ann Bracken (Columbia, MD) is pleased to announce the launch of The Possibility Project, her new practice of journal coaching. This practice is dedicated to using writing, poetry, and drama in creative ways to effect positive change and healing for a fuller, richer life. Ann’s vision is to provide a space where creativity, growth and self-expression support happiness and deepen a sense of purpose in people’s lives. Ann is also currently enrolled in the Drama in Educa- tion Post-graduate Diploma program at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and she looks forward to incorporating drama techniques into her practice of embodied writing.
Along with a chapter being published in Prompted to Write (see above), Geri Chavis (St. Paul, MN) also had a wonderful set of experiences teaching five different workshops in the Republic of Ireland this summer: a two-day Oasis for Therapists in the Wicklow Mountains; a three-day introductory course in Mulranny on the west coast; two one-day workshops in the Dublin area and an afternoon workshop co-led with Niall Hickey in Portarlington for the Irish
Poetry Network group there. Geri is looking forward to next year’s teaching in Ireland and to her five-day introductory course, which is scheduled for the first week of June 2008 in St. Paul, Minnesota, at the College of St. Catherine. If interested, please contact her at [email protected].
Kerstin Hof (Hamburg, Germany) has articles in Volume 2 of Scientific Basics of Art-Therapy and in I Love to See You Talk: Language in the Reference Field of Art-Therapeutical Practicing an Research.
Charlie Rossiter (Chicago, Illinois) has a new collection of poems out from FootHills Publishing. The Night We Danced With the Raelettes is available at www.foothillspublishing.com.
Faye Snider (Newton, MA) is enrolled as a first-year MFA student in Pine Manor College’s low residency program in creative writing. She is specializing in creative nonfiction and writing personal essays and memoir.
Shanee Stepakoff (New York, NY) was the Commencement Speaker and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at the Worcester State College commencement cer- emony in Worcester, Massachusetts, on May 13, 2007. In August 2006, she was a member of the six-person team that received the American Psychological Association’s Interna- tional Humanitarian Award on the basis of work with Liberian refugees in Guinea, and she delivered the award address at the APA convention in New Orleans. Over the past year, she has had five articles and one chapter accepted or in press in refereed professional journals/books, most focusing on the use of the creative arts therapies with victims of torture and ethnopolitical violence. Dr. Stepakoff, a licensed clinical psy- chologist and mentor/supervisor in poetry therapy, enrolled in the MFA program in creative writing (poetry specializa- tion) at the New School University in New York in Sept. 2007. She will also be in private practice in New York City, providing psychotherapy and poetry therapy for adults, ado- lescents and children.
Share the News! Report your lastest
accomplishments to: [email protected]
November 2007 17
Margot Van Sluytman (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) gave workshop and reading entitled, Poetry and Your Health, at the University of Alberta, in the Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine through the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry in Edmonton. She also gave a reading and talk as poetry as healing voice, which was sponsored by Lapidus. She will be in Toronto, Ontario, November 9-10 participating in a Po- etry as Meditation and Healing Voice Workshop with Dr. Matthew Fox and in Vancouver, British Columbia on No- vember 23 (speaking during Restorative Justice Week) about the power of words to heal. She will be speaking with Glen Flett who was sentenced to 21 years to life in 1980 for the shooting death of Margot’s father Theodore Van Sluytman, during a Brink’s holdup at the Hudson’s Bay store in Toronto. Because of reading about her Seeds of Joy Award, which she received from The Foundation of the National Association for Poetry Therapy, Flett contacted her, and a dialogue of miraculous proportions occurred, including deep and neces- sary healing. Margot is writing a book entitled Sawbonna: Murder. Grief. Forgiveness. Letters of Transformation, which will speak of this astounding gift of the power of words to heal.
Media WatchMedia WatchMedia WatchMedia WatchMedia Watch This column of The Museletter is designed to be a service to our readers and to the larger field of poetry therapy. We will print listings of newspapers, periodicals, academic and professional journals, radio programs, television specials, etc. that provide coverage of writing as a healing tool, as well as related issues. If you see or learn of material that should be included, please email full citation information to the Editor at [email protected] for inclusion in the next issue.
In Memorium Grace Paley, 1922-2007
Dear NAPT Members and Friends,
It is with mixed feelings that I recently accepted the resignation of Mary Caprio from our Board of Direc- tors. I say “mixed” because although Mary’s shoes are virtually unfillable, I admire and understand her need to focus on her internship in social work, as part of the MSW degree she is now pursuing.
Mary has gone beyond the call of duty in all aspects of her role, to the degree that it is difficult to fully represent her contribution to NAPT and to the Board. Although most of her fellow Board members consider Mary to be an “old timer” (a testament to her enormous success and presence), Mary joined the board in 2003 and became Vice President of Membership in 2005. Shortly after assuming the VP position, she started the e-newsletter that has provided one of the best commu- nicative instruments in NAPT history. I don’t believe I am overstating the case in saying that Mary has been among our most active and pro-active Board members!
As I told Mary, no one can really ever replace her. Yet, we must start thinking about whom to ask, and how to ask, for nominations for a new VP of membership, who I’m sure will bring his or her own set of strengths and contributions.
Please join me in wishing Mary the very best. Thank you, Mary, with all our hearts!
Sincerely, Diane Allerdyce, NAPT President
Author and activist Grace Paley, a member of NAPT's Praise of Muses, passed away in August.
An NAPT tribute to Grace is forthcoming.
• The February 22, 2007, edition of HealthDay.com included the article “Words Can Help the Healing: Expres- sive-writing therapy is aiding cancer patients.” The story can be accessed online at www.healthday.com/ Article.asp?AID=602096.
18 The Museletter
Muse ReviewsMuse ReviewsMuse ReviewsMuse ReviewsMuse Reviews Cracking Up and Back Again: Transformation Through Poetry by Diane Kaufman Palabras Press, 2007 (www.palabras-press.com)
Reviewed by Sherry Reiter
Cracking Up and Back Again: Transformation Through Poetry is a simple and beautiful workbook by
psychiatrist Diane Kaufman, composed of fifteen poems followed by questions to use as writing prompts. What is unique is the stark honesty and accessibility of the poems themselves. Kaufman begins the book with “Poetic Medi- cine,” as follows:
readymade guide, with each session’s theme neatly laid out. Poetry therapists should be aware that there are two instances where suicidality is mentioned, (“No one can love who I am/ No one ever loved who I am/ If I show you who I am/ I will have to kill myself/ Because being dead will be the/ Only way I can hide once more.”) While some therapists may feel it is appropriate to use this with persons who are grappling with suicidal feelings, other therapists may feel it is counter- therapeutic to introduce the theme of the death wish. This topic remains somewhat controversial in the field. Dr. Kaufman is a psychiatrist who believes it is better to put the theme of suicide on the table so it can be discussed and not acted upon.
This issue aside, the remaining poems are lucid and touching, with no content that would be disputed. The spirit of the book is warm, loving and to the point. Here is a wounded healer who has been there and survives to help others with her words. What greater inspiration can there be?
Yesterday my heart cracked open All birds in the sky Flew within And I like they have wings.
There’s always a big black pot Simmering Bubbling Boiling over with troubles The brew gets thicker and thicker As more troubles keep piling in, You ask yourself, “Oh, when will it ever end?” A whisper replies, “Pour out the pot and start all over again!”
The pot will certainly break as in “breakdown” or “crack- pot” unless some action is taken. Cracking Up and Back Again is the odyssey of a wounded healer who forged her own path through writing. She has generously bequeathed her poems to serve as guideposts for others who choose to “pour out the pot and start all over again.” Persons in recovery from abuse, violence, alcohol and chemical addiction, and difficult life situations will benefit from Kaufman’s poetry.
Scorchingly honest and self-searching, Dr. Kaufman is a wounded healer who has confronted herself with the questions that every person needs to ask in the quest for wholeness. How sick do you have to be to move toward wellness? Have you ever forgotten the good and magnified the bad? Have you ever lived your life for other people? Have you experienced abuse by others or yourself? What kind of love story are you writing in your life? What are your spiritual beliefs about forgiveness? How open or closed is your heart? These and other questions pierce our hearts because the heart is first softened with a poem.
Psychiatrists, psychologists and social worker therapists, substance abuse rehabilitation counselors, as well as creative arts therapists will find Cracking Up and Back Again to be a
Eating Sour Rhubarb Beneath a Cold Moon: A Book of American Haiku by Joy Shieman Trafford Publishing, 2007 (www.trafford.com)
Reviewed by Perie Longo
If you have ever wondered how or why haiku can be an exciting and helpful form of healing in a psychotherapeutic or educational setting, Joy Shieman’s book is the answer. The title comes from one of the many haiku she has written:
It seems so fitting, eating stalks of sour rhubarb
beneath a cold moon…
She writes that in Medieval times, rhubarb was considered to be “a tonic for the system.”
Monks would grow this humble plant among the sweet and bitter herb gardens behind monastery walls. She imag-
November 2007 19
ines how a friar might slip into the night with a bowl filled with honey, then quietly dip the stalks, stripped to make no sound and thus be discovered, into the thick sweetness, to eat with pleasure. No one would know but the “cold moon.” We are left to finish the haiku in our own mind, one of the requirements of a well-written haiku, according to Joy, and one of the elements that provide a mean’s of self-discovery and the haiku’s ability to heal.
She clarifies other elements of writing haiku for pleasure and discipline, as well as settling emotional chaos, further developing the healing quality of rhubarb.
The Museletter is looking for people to write full reviews (750-1,000 words) of new books of poetry/writing and art therapy theory and practice, as well as poetry collec- tions and other related titles for “Muse Reviews.” Re- viewers may suggest books to review or check the “Books Received” list in each issue of The Museletter for possible review titles. We are also looking for people to write shorter “Books Noted” pieces (100-150 words) highlight- ing not-so-recent books and other media that may, for various reasons, not be covered in a full review in “Muse Reviews.” If you would like to contribute or need additional information, please email Karen vanMeenen, Edi- tor, The Museletter, at [email protected].
…if you take out the center of a rhubarb root, always it will die… if you cut out the center of the human soul, always it will shrivel… if you water the center of the soul, the soul will flourish.
Writing in the given form of three lines, seventeen syl- lables, Joy feels, is a good way to begin writing haiku because it provides a pattern and focus, as well as settling emotional chaos. Writing in the now is essential because in haiku, there is no past or future. Emotion is expressed through the images in nature, which “hint at a season.” The secret of a haiku is the “paradox in the center.”
Makoto Ueda of Stanford University, professor of Asian languages, writes in his foreword about the “healing nature of haiku,” quoting one of Joy’s haiku published in Borrowed Water (1966), the first anthology of American haiku published in Japan.
Snail, if you shouted in your narrow room, no one
would hear your great need
weaves into her theory of writing haiku and teaching others to do so in a healing environment. By observing nature close up, we begin to get underneath our own skin and know our own patterns, and perhaps change them as we express joy, sorrow, loneliness and anger through imagery and connection.
The poems in the book are divided into two sections: those she wrote and those written by friends and “patients.” Her poems, written over many years, include those inspired by her travels in the United States, Mexico, South America, Ireland and Canada as well as those inspired by water and circles, to name a few. The anthology is a rich resource for all those working in the field of poetry therapy, peppered with beautiful photographs to illustrate some of the haiku, taken by a variety of photographers. One of the many de- lights of the book is how lovingly Joy writes about the im- portance of how haiku has opened not only her life, but others, into doorway after doorway of opportunity. Joy is one of our beloved pioneers in NAPT, and offers the “Seeds of Joy” scholarship for international practitioners of poetry for healing to attend the annual conference.
If I were to quote my favorite haiku, this review would be pages long, so I end with one, written by a patient, that holds the essence of our work:
Scurrying ant displays overwhelming strength
this longing to exist…
Shieman has had a passion for writing haiku for many years as a way to harness her exuberance and joy at the bless- ings life has given her. The haiku serves as a “door” to one heart connecting to another, as one image connects to another not only through similarity, but difference. In the process of taking her love for this form into a hospital setting, beginning in 1962, she developed a methodology called “Therapoetics—Re-Alignment of the Soul,” which she describes in the opening pages of the book.
Married to a man who had a passion for flying, she had the opportunity to rise above the world to observe many vary- ing patterns visible from 2,000 to 10,000 feet above. From that experience, she coined the term “Overvision,” which she
20 The Museletter
Books ReceivedBooks ReceivedBooks ReceivedBooks ReceivedBooks Received Healing the Inner City Child: Creative Arts Therapies with At-risk Youth edited by Vanessa A. Camilleri. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007.
Mourning Has Broken: A Collection of Creative Writing About Grief and Healing (2nd ed.) edited by Maria Koven and Liz Pearl. Toronto: KOPE Associates, 2006.
Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak edited by Marc Falkoff. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2007.
The Spoken Word Revolution Redux by Mark Eleveld. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2007.
Writing Poetry from the Inside Out: Finding Your Voice Through the Craft of Poetry edited by Sandford Lyne. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2007.
Listing in “Books Received” does not preclude future nota- tion or full review in The Museletter. Individuals interested in reviewing titles listed here, or other books that may be of interest to readers of The Museletter, are encouraged to contact the Editor at [email protected].
PoemNationPoemNationPoemNationPoemNationPoemNation
• • • • • CaliforniaCaliforniaCaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia
The Southern California Poetry Therapy Network offers peer/supervision hours for trainees working on their CAPF, CPT and PTR on the second Sunday of the month in Santa Barbara or Los Angeles. Others interested in the process are also welcome. Facilitation practice, skill building, case studies and literature review are offered. The group is super- vised by Mentor/Supervisor Perie Longo, PhD, MFT, PTR. Call Perie at (805) 687-1619 or email [email protected] for further information.
• Colorado• Colorado• Colorado• Colorado• Colorado
Colorado CPT training group meets the third Saturday (with some schedule variations) near downtown Denver offering peer group, literature review, group supervision. Con- tact Kay Adams at (303) 986-6460 or [email protected] for schedule and information.
• Connecticut• Connecticut• Connecticut• Connecticut• Connecticut
Peer group forming in Southeastern Connecticut. Easily accessible to CT, MA and RI. For more information contact Elaine Brooks, PTR-M/S, at (860) 546-0621 or [email protected].
• Florida• Florida• Florida• Florida• Florida
The South Florida Peer Group meets the third Sunday of the month at the Fort Lauderdale office of Mentor/Supervi- sor Deborah E. Grayson, LMHC, RPT. Each month participants are treated to the latest techniques in Poetry Therapy, thematic poems, new books and resources in the field and invaluable feedback from their peers. We allow ample time for discussing difficult cases, reviewing applications and updating personal files. This has been an ongoing group for eight years! Join us by reserving your space at (954) 741- 1160.
Mari Alschuler, LCSW, RPT, M/S, is available for mentoring of CPT and RPT trainees. She continues to offer a correspondence/email course in Poetic Devices. Please contact her at [email protected] or (954) 424-9085.
• Illinois
Charlie Rossiter, PhD, CPT, offers mentoring for poetry therapy trainees as well as writing and poetry therapy workshops in the Chicago area. For more information or to be added to his mailing list to be kept informed of offerings contact him at [email protected]. Charlie is also working on developing an “Off-Season Training Intensive” in the Chicago area. If you are interested in re- ceiving details when they become available, send a note to [email protected] with “off-season intensive” as the subject line.
• Maryland
Gina Campbell, Counselor and CAPF, offers training in Symbolic Modeling, a cutting-edge mind/body technique
November 2007 21
that uses a systematic process for verbally exploring and developing a client’s internalized metaphors to foster clar- ity, healing and change. Participants will have opportunities to be both facilitator and client as they learn the basics of Symbolic Modeling and Clean Language. These are skills readily used by therapists, body workers, life coaches, teach- ers and business consultants. Quickly and safely get at the deep-rooted sources of issues that may not be accessible at the conscious level. Effective with assisting clients in releas- ing old patterns, beliefs and trauma. Also effective with goal- setting, motivation issues and more. For more information email [email protected].
• Minnesota
Geri Chavis, LP, CPT, PhD, facilitates a poetry therapy supervision group in Minneapolis. For information contact Geri at [email protected] or (651) 690-6524.
Minnesota Regional Gatherings: Since 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. Currently, we are in the process of planning our group’s second anthology of choice poems generated during our gatherings. 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• New England• New England• New England• New England
The New England Chapter of the American Society for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP) offers free, open psychodrama trainings three times a year in New England. For information e-mail [email protected] or phone (508) 647-0596.
• New York City/New Jersey/Long
Island/Long Distance
The “Creative Righting” Center continues to train poetry therapists who are distant learners as well people in the tri-state area. Once Sunday a month, peer groups meet at The Institute for the Arts in Psychotherapy in New York City. Newcomers are welcome. Sessions include facilitation by Sherry Reiter, PhD, PTR- M/S, facilitation session by a member of the group, one hour of supervision, and one hour of didactic. Includes poetry, story gems and honing of facilitation skills. For full schedule, see visit thecreativerightingcenter.com or write Sherry at [email protected].
bridgeXngs POETRY CENTER, Inc., a state-of-the-art comprehensive poetry center and intentional community pio- neering on-line courses for poetry therapy trainees, directed by Lila L. Weisberger, offers local and long distance trainings, individual and small group supervision. Monthly poetry peer groups are offered in Manhattan as well as the July Intensive “ACTIONWEEK.” Courses offered are for on-line poetry peer groups for long distance trainees (10 hours); an on-line ten month didactic course and experience facilitating on line based on the text The Healing Fountain: Poetry Therapy for Life’s Journey by Geri Chavis and Lila Weisberger; Poetic Forms: Poetry as Symphony; Poetry as Container; Develop- mental Psychology and Abnormal Psychology: Words on a Hat: Learning Psychology Through Literature and study groups of major poetry therapy texts. Special Programs: Po- etry and Altered Books; Poetry and creation of three dimen- sional dolls. For Information contact Lila at [email protected] or (917) 660-0440.
Writing Your Way Home, a poetry weekend intensive led by Laura Boss and Maria Mazziotti Gillan, will be held at St. Marguerite’s Retreat House in Mendham, NJ, on December 7-9, 2007. Fee of $375 includes room, meals and all workshops. 15 professional development credits available. For registration and additional information email Maria Mazziotti Gillan at [email protected].
• On-line/Virtual/Region-free• On-line/Virtual/Region-free• On-line/Virtual/Region-free• On-line/Virtual/Region-free• On-line/Virtual/Region-free
Two-year CPT distance learning program with Kay Adams RPT, mentor/supervisor. Call Kay Adams, (303) 986-6460, email [email protected] or see www.journaltherapy.com for details.
Online CPT psychology prerequisite courses. Abnormal Psychology, Group Process and Counseling Methods classes of 10 weeks each are forming now. Call Kay Adams, (303) 986-6460, email [email protected] or see www.journaltherapy.com for details and schedules. Indepen- dent study Language Arts prerequisite classes also available with Gayle Nosal, CPT, [email protected].
The Wordsworth Center’s signature Intensives that en- gage the wider world of applied literature in poetry therapy are available for presentation in your community. Ken Gorelick and Peggy Heller, clinical poetry therapists, mentor/supervisors and former presidents of NAPT, have developed unique intensive programs, often called “creativity camp,” for students, practitioners and seekers in the poetry therapy field. All participants will attain knowledge of poetry therapy methods and principles through lectures, discussions, readings and writing processes; skills through
22 The Museletter
experience of classical and action poetry therapy and team design of field applications hours in didactic, peer group and group supervision applicable to CPT or RPT credentials or mentor/supervisor requirements. For more information about sponsoring and organizing a Wordsworth Intensive in your community contact Peggy Heller at [email protected] or Ken Gorelick at [email protected].
Margot Van Sluytman offers five on-line courses in Po- etry/Writing and Healing: 1) Poetry and the Process of Heal- ing: The Dance With Encounter; 2) Poetry from Soul—Soul from Poetry; 3) Writing From Wild Self—Real Self: Surren- der not Control; 4) Writing and the Process: Out of Dark Night; and 5) Writing and the Process Two: the Healing Art of Dancing With Words. For information visit www.Dance- With-Words.com and select “On-Line Course” link or contact Margot at [email protected] or (705) 760- 9446.
Workshops, Classes, Seminars,Workshops, Classes, Seminars,Workshops, Classes, Seminars,Workshops, Classes, Seminars,Workshops, Classes, Seminars, General EducationalGeneral EducationalGeneral EducationalGeneral EducationalGeneral Educational OpportunitiesOpportunitiesOpportunitiesOpportunitiesOpportunities Goddard College’s Transformative Language Arts Master’s Program allows students to pursue 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 most 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 contact Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg at [email protected] for information.
Since 2003, the Masters in Liberal Studies program (MLS) at University of Denver’s University College has offered coursework on Writing & Healing. Students can earn a DU graduate degree while meeting many of the requirements for poetry therapy certification. The following classes are designed and taught by Kay Adams, RPT, M/S; Joy Sawyer, RPT, M/S; and Gayle Nosal, CPT: Writing & Healing I, Writing & Healing II, Journal to the Self, and Poetry & Per- sonal Growth. Courses are available on campus and online. For more information, call Holly Dunn at University Col- lege at (303) 871-3935.
Toronto author and psychotherapist Ronna Bloom will lead a writing workshop on a vineyard in Santiago, Chile, Jan. 6-20, 2008. “Writing Wherever You Are” will explore the richness and availability of the writer’s material in their present circumstances; writing with attention to geographic, emotional and sensual forces; figs on trees; and works of Neruda, Rilke, Ginsberg, Carolyn Forche, Pema Chodron, Raymond Carver. For information email Susan Siddeley at [email protected].
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg and Kelley Hunt will be present- ing Brave Voice, their retreat on writing, singing and songwriting in the Flint Hills of Kansas from May 4-9, 2008, at White Memorial Camp (near Council Grove, KS.). The retreat features morning workshops on writing close to the earth and open to the spirit, the care and use of the voice, songwriting and inventing wonder out of our perceptions, and much more; movement, yoga and other body awareness exercises each day; afternoons free for writing, singing, massage (massage therapist on the premises), walks, rest, and art-making; and evening performances from award-winning internationally-touring rhythm and blues singer Kelley Hunt, and poet, writer, teacher and mentor Caryn Mirriam- Goldberg. The setting is at a beautiful camp on a peninsula in Council Grove lake, surrounded by the Flint Hills. Coun- cil Grove is also a historic location where many Plains tribes met in council on a regular basis. Space is limited, and we do provide shuttle service for people flying into Kansas City International Airport. For complete details, please contact [email protected], or see www.bravevoice.com.
Reflective Writing: A Women’s Writing Group meets on Mondays, 7:30-9:00pm, through the Behavioral and Collabo- rative Medicine Department at South Miami Hospital, and is facilitated by Barbara Kreisberg, MS, CPT. Through sponta- neous 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 Bkexpres @aol.com for further information and pre-registration.
Writing for Life: Creating a Story of Your Own by Sandra Lee Schubert. The journaling and scrapbooking techniques taught in this course provide a creative way to connect with the inner self and heal emotional 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.
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Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, PhD, CPT, facilitates ongoing workshops for people living with or recovering from cancer at Turning Point of Kansas City: A Center for Hope and Health; Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Lawrence, KS; and The Light Center, Baldwin, KS. Caryn also regularly facilitates workshops on writing as a spiritual practice, writing from the earth and mythopoetics. Please see www.writewhereyouare.org for what’s coming up.
Lapidus is the UK’s national Association for the Literary Arts in Personal Development and brings together people with an interest in creative words for health and well-being. Lapidus offers monthly “Writing-Well” seminars, part of a program of regional development for Lapidus in Scotland, which follows the aims of central Lapidus to promote and develop the role of the literary arts in healthcare, education and the community. Each evening focuses on a theme (recent themes include “Cancer, Poetry and Healing” and “Dementia and Creativity”) and allows ample time for creative and reflective writing, discussion and questions with a guest speaker. For details email [email protected].
Several workshops are being offered in Germany in upcoming months: • Words with wings: Creative Writing, Nov. 16-18, 2007. A workshop for everybody who wants to get in touch with a creative approach to personal and individual writing. The workshop offers the opportunity to test writing crafts and to meet the power of your own voice and to have fun! For information visit www.gsi-bevensen.de.
• Further education in Creative Writing and Poetrytherapy in four modules in Feb., May, Aug. and Oct. For information visit www.schreibart-institut.de. The SchreibArt-Institut is run by Kerstin Hof and Adelheid Liepelt, both longtime pro- fessionals in creative writing and poetry-/bibliotherapy in Hamburg, Germany. They are both members of the German Association of Poetry- and Bibliotherapy.
• Biographical Writing is being offered in Feb. 2008 for art therapy students and professional art therapists at the Insti- tute for Art Therapy and Research at the University of Ap- plied Sciences, near Bremen. For information visit www.kunsttherapieforschung.de.
The Institute for the Arts and Psychotherapy, 526 W. 26th St., Suite 309, New York, NY. Registration: $35. For more information contact Barbara Bethea [email protected] or (718) 978-4663.
Calls for Work/Articles/ProposalsCalls for Work/Articles/ProposalsCalls for Work/Articles/ProposalsCalls for Work/Articles/ProposalsCalls for Work/Articles/Proposals The Museletter is seeking writers of book reviews, “Pro- files” of organizations and individuals, “Poems as Process,” “Happenings” reports, “Process” pieces, “Chapbook” poems (with accompanying narrative), interviews with poets and creative arts therapies practitioners and feature articles for future issues. The Editor welcomes proposals 3+ weeks in advance of submission deadlines. As we are unable to pub- lish all the submissions we receive, please refer to issues of the Museletter for general style and content guidelines before submitting a proposal or article. See ad in this issue for full Submission Guidelines, including upcoming deadlines.
The Power of Words conference, to be held Sept. 12-15, 2008, at Goddard College, is now calling for proposals for workshops and performances. We seek workshops on writing, singing, songwriting, storytelling, spoken word poetry, drama, and related topics that speak to how we can use our words to change ourselves and change the world; we also seek workshops on making a living through transformative language arts (social and personal transformation through the written and spoken word); and we call for workshops that look at our words through the lenses of social change,
EventsEventsEventsEventsEvents Native American Poetry and Healing Tradition: Poetry, Mu- sic and Storytelling with Joseph Bruchac at the Tristate NAPT Regional Chapter Meeting at 2pm on Dec. 9, 2007.
Like most other organizations these days, NAPT relies more and more on e-mailed communications to members. This saves substantial amounts of money and also means that you can hear from us in a more timely fashion. Some of our e-mailed anouncements—such as the monthly mem-
bership e-newsletter—are not duplicated with print versions, so if we don’t have
your e-mail address, you are missing them.
Please send us your e-mail address so we can keep you up-to-
date and you won’t miss out on any of the benefits of NAPT member-
ship. If you’re not currently receiv- ing the monthly e-newsletter or other
NAPT announcements, please send a note to [email protected] so we can add your e-mail address to the database.
Also, please notify us also of e-mail address changes.
E-mail addresses, please!E-mail addresses, please!E-mail addresses, please!E-mail addresses, please!E-mail addresses, please!
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person and communal healing, race, class, ability, sexual ori- entation, spirituality and religion, history and visions for the future. The deadline for workshop proposals is Feb. 4, 2008, and all workshop proposals are to be sent to [email protected]. For complete details, including the form for submitting proposals, please see www.goddard.edu/powerofwords.
Patient Education and Counseling presents a new section comprised of selected narratives on reflective practice. Re- flective Practice will provide a voice for physicians and other healthcare providers, patients and their family members, trainees and medical educators. The title emphasizes the impor- tance of reflection in our learning and how our patient care and own self-care can be improved through reflective practice, similar to other health care provider skills. 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 http:// ees.elsevier.com/pec. Patient Education and Counseling is an international journal indexed in Medline and 13 other related indexes. All manuscripts, including narratives, are peer- reviewed.
If you would like an electronic copy of the editorial describing the Reflective Practice section, “Sharing Stories: Nar- rative Medicine in an Evidence-Based World,” please e-mail Dr. Hatem or Dr. Rider. Editors: David Hatem, MD, Univer- sity of Massachusetts Medical School: [email protected]; Elizabeth A. Rider, MSW, MD, Harvard Medical School: [email protected]; Florence van Zuuren, PhD, University of Amsterdam and the Free, University in The Netherlands: [email protected].
Submissions of poems, stories, diary entries and essays on the analytic experience are being sought for The Psycho- analytic Experience: Analysands Speak. No rhymed or re- ligious material. Deadline: Ongoing. Email submissions to Editor Esther Altshul Helfgott, PhD, at [email protected]. For more information visit www.analysands.homestead.com.
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 and instructions for authors please visit www.catainfo.ca.
ResourcesResourcesResourcesResourcesResources The Transformative Language Arts concentration at Goddard College now 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 web.goddard.edu/~tla/ and if you have any additions, please contact Caryn Mirriam- Goldberg at [email protected].
The Transformative Language Arts Network—a professional organization that promotes networking, resource-sharing, and right livelihood through using the written, spoken and sung word for personal and community growth—is now offering memberships, and also, internet-based and phone conference-based classes. The classes cover such topics as memoir, spirituality and writing, promoting one’s

Documents

Southern California Poetry Therapy Network Annual Training Intensive