by Robert C. Jameson, MFT

“Patience? What are you talking about? I don’t have time for patience! I want what I want, and I want it now! In fact, I don’t want it now. I need it now!” Sound familiar? Stuff to do just seems to keep piling up and yet, time just keeps moving.

Editor's Note from Barbara Lazarony: Need Patience? Grab a pen and some paper instead, start to write about what the air feels like, what sounds surround your ears, and what you see three feet in front of you. Ahhh, that's the present moment.

Writing & Poetry Therapy

by Michele Berstein

I packed it very carefully

Then added a ribbon of red

So no one would mistake it...

Editor's Note from Barbara Lazarony: Michele Bernstein shares a frustrating and funny poem about loosing her luggage and more...

Writing & Poetry Therapy

by Bobbee Cera

Look out the window, and what do you see?
Can you spot the air changing colors, like me?
Do you feel the morn's waking dawn coming on,
Or hear the grass growing, as life moves along?

Editor's Note from Barbara Lazarony: What do you remember from your youth? Allow Bobbee Cera to give you a glimpse into her childhood world...

Writing & Poetry Therapy

Editor's Note from Sue Meyn: This is a gentle piece that gives you some very basic ideas about using journaling as prayer. In my own life I've found journaling to be a big part of my spiritual life. I hope you find this to be of interest to you.
 

Writing & Poetry Therapy

by Katie McClain

When I was in 4th grade, I bullied someone.

I'm nervous to admit this, but it's true.

The girl I bullied was very pretty, with gorgeous brown hair. And big curly locks...

Editor's Note from Barbara Lazarony: Who among us has not done something that they regret? Here's Katie McClain's enlightened adult perspective on bullying.

Writing & Poetry Therapy

by Wendy Videlock

I should be diligent and firm,

I know I should, and frowning, too;

again you’ve failed to clean your room...

Editor's Note from Susan de Wardt: What better way to celebrate Mother's Day than by taking a look into a child's room. Enjoy this engaging poem on parenthood: Disarmed by Wendy Videlock.

Writing & Poetry Therapy

by Gary Soulsman

When a suicide attempt with Drano failed and electroshock therapy was useless in stabilizing her life, Wilmington's Joan Leof discovered other methods of healing. She found the miracle of meditation and yoga in her 30s as well as what's possible with a good therapist, someone gifted at empathy and interested in more than thorazine...

Editor's Note from Sue Meyn: Learn more about Joan Leof's new book...and reflect on how it may be of help to you or someone you know.

Writing & Poetry Therapy

by Linda E. Savage, PhD

May Day is my favorite time of year, because not only it's close to my birthday, but also because it is the season when all of nature is making love...

Editor's Note from Barbara Lazarony: Linda E. Savage encourages us all to admire the love ever present all around us: in nature, in others, and in ourselves.

Writing & Poetry Therapy

by Ellen Gerst

Seventeen years ago, as I started to grieve the passing of my first husband, I frantically searched for support and inspiration from any available resource. As it turned out, rather than finding solace from outside sources, my greatest respite resided deep within me as I started to put my feelings and thoughts on paper...

Editor's Note from Barbara Lazarony: How does one cope with the lost of a husband at the tender age of thirty-nine? Ellen Gerst shares that she took to her journal and discovered how to be lost and found.

Writing & Poetry Therapy

by John Fox, Certified Poetry Therapist

Truthfulness, honor, is not something which springs ablaze of itself,
it has to be created between people. ~ Adrienne Rich

We at the Institute for Poetic Medicine, honor and celebrate poet Adrienne Rich and her life. Peace and Justice has lost a passionate and altogether courageous voice...

Adrienne Rich died on March 27, 2012, at the age of 82 in her Santa Cruz, California home.

Editor's Note from Barbara Lazarony: John Fox from the Institute for Poetic Medicine celebrates the life and writings of Adrienne Rich.

Writing & Poetry Therapy

by Federico Garcia Lorca

Green, how I want you green.
Green wind. Green branches.
The ship out on the sea
and the horse on the mountain.
With the shade around her waist
she dreams on her balcony,
green flesh, her hair green,
with eyes of cold silver...

Editor's Note from Thomasz Czepaitis: This poem caught me in my young years as the best love poem I've ever read. Thanks, of course, to the excellent Russian translation by the now late A. Geleskul (I am half Russian) but the hard emotional rhythm of the flamenco guitar is heard in the Spanish original even by the stranger, and the images, colored with Green... are vivid as paintings, as films, so strong is its influence on listener.

Writing & Poetry Therapy