Welcome!

John's work at Paideia School in Atlanta, GA, has covered 22 consecutive years. Paideia is a school with students in grades K - 12. Over these years, John brought poetry-as-healer to at least a thousand children & teens and many teachers.

This program is not open to the public.

A note from John:

What I love about this work is the freshness that happens.  It sounds cliché - freshness, is what you would expect to hear about children. Yet to directly experience the flow of that freshness, there is uplift and the open-heartedness. Such a blessing happens by making room for their unique voices. They and their poems remind me of a line from God's Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins:

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things

The " dearest deep down" is the immense gift children have to say to the world.

This "deep down" is not so different working with the tremendous Paideia faculty. There is more ripeness of life and of lives, which is different from that child-like freshness; in ripeness there is depth and profound choices revealed...at times revealed in the making of the poem, which is a surprise. Surprise is a way of lifting up freshness in the adult heart.

We begin by waking up,

by understanding the intimate connections

between ourselves and our place

and the spiritual possibilities

to which those connections point.

~ Abiel Abbot, 1804

from Sermons to Mariners

For all the good sentiment that Spring is cracked up to be, we know that, in this first and new season, there can be harsh and driving rain, mud, late frost that kills tender fruit, a kind of awakening in our hearts like a clenched fist that stings as it tries to open.

As we wake up from the sleep of winter, a deeper awareness and realization of our losses may come. That is, such sudden and raw awakening can deliver cruelties.

Yet...what could be better-in-this-life than stepping into a 'mud-luscious' time that brings creative children running not to mention that balloon-man whose sole (and soul!) purpose is to open our winter-ragged hearts (no matter our age) to something called play?

Spring says we are made to play - as in, "Play ball!"

We invite you to gather together Sunday afternoon, March 10 to write during this time of stepping through that ancient portal of a season that opens us towards what is growing & green, what is possible & true.

By writing, especially with poetry and poem-making, we can claim this time of deep renewal as our own and share in this together.

When:

Sunday, March 10, 2019

1 - 4:30 P.M.

Contribution: $35

Location:

East Decatur Station, 619-B

East College Avenue

Decatur, GA 30030

Registration

Flyer

Questions?

For information, please call Decatur Healing Arts: (404) 378-6288

This moment of surprising yourself with your own words or of being surprised by the poems of others is at the heart of poetry as epiphany. This experience of creative insight helps you to recognize in yourself a deeper, more resonant voice, that has been discouraged, hidden away, perhaps is yet to be discovered or re-discovered!

The Mariandale Center sponsors retreats and programs in spirituality and contemplative practices, social justice, environmental protection, the arts, and wellness of body, mind, and spirit.

Mariandale is situated on 61 wooded acres on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, with beautiful views of the river and valley. It's an unforgettable and peaceful setting for planning, teaching, training, studying, or meditating.  Guests enjoy the quiet, contemplative environment at the center, as well as the beautiful landscape overlooking the Hudson River.

When:

 • Friday Evening Talk, 7 - 9:30 P.M.

 • Weekend Retreat, Friday, 5 P.M. - 1 P.M. Sunday

Contribution:

 • Talk only $25

 • Retreat (includes Talk): $250

Registration

(Retreat limited to 22)

Questions?

To learn more, please contact Mariandale:

Karen Bernard

(914) 941-4455

kbernard@ophope.org

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,

places to play in and pray in,

where nature may heal and give strength

to body and soul alike."

~ John Muir

"Poetry is simply speaking truth, and speaking truth heals. What is true for each of us at the deepest level is true for us all. As we strengthen the healer within us, we set free the unique song that is at the heart of every life."

~ Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

from the Preface to Poetic Medicine

Let's explore how poetic medicine invites us to:

• listen deeply to the questions, concerns, and dreams that unite us

 • strengthen our bodies, minds, and spirits

 • create with others a space to find guidance, companionship, and hope

 • empower your creativity and connection to a voice within

John Fox, Practitioner of Poetic Medicine, Author, Poetry Therapist and President of the Institute for Poetic Medicine, will facilitate this Poetic Medicine workshop: "Heart, who will you cry out to?"

John has led similar workshops across the United States and Internationally for decades. He has trained many practitioners in the practice of poetry therapy and influenced many others in a range of helping professions to bring the healing practice of poem-making to those suffering from physical or mental illness, incarceration, domestic abuse, homelessness, addiction, immigrant and refugee youth, and other life-changing conditions.

When:

March 19, 2019

2 - 5 P.M.

Location:

Holy Cross Faith Memorial Episcopal Church

113 Baskervill Drive

Pawleys Island, South Carolina

Contribution: $25

Registration

*Registration is required; space is limited to 20. This workshop is close to being full already so we will be starting a waitlist.

Flyer

Questions?

For more information, please contact:

Amy Webb

843-274-0661

dramywebb@gmail.com

Poem making and poetry when approached as a transformational process provides an opportunity for inner healing and especially when shared with others in community.

This workshop provides a generative and safe place to express yourself within the container of a poem-allowing the essential elements distilled by your writing to be felt, explored and integrated.

Drawing from a splendid range of sources, John will encourage each participant to experiment with poetic tools of metaphor, sound, word, rhythm, imagery and symbol as remedies to speak what is true as a way to deepen into wholeness and live with greater heart.

While not limited by any means to people in helping professions, if you are active in social work, education, mental health, pastoral care, elder care, medicine-as nurse or physician, expressive arts, community organizing-you will feel bolstered-even renewed-in this workshop and pick up a few tools and techniques that empower and connect.

No prior experience with poetry or poem-making is necessary and "beginner's mind" is encouraged among all participants!

When:

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

7:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Location:

Unity of Charleston

2535 Leeds Ave.,

Charleston, SC

Contribution: $20

Registration

*We encourage you to register in advance. However, last minute walk-in's are welcome!

Flyer

Questions?

For more information, please contact:

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD

(843) 580-6481

ymsaleeby@gmail.com

In our workaday world, we are no longer present to the natural world in any manner. We no longer see trees as other beings to commune with. We are not taught to make that connection, not encouraged to speak of trees this way.

~ Thomas Berry

Our Broken Connection to the Natural World

In this retreat weekend we will explore and strengthen our relationship with trees. We will slow down to listen to what these sacred beings can teach us. To make this journey, we will use poetry and poem-making as a way to express and describe this relationship with ourselves, one another and within the larger context of living as stewards of this planet, express it as part of the fabric of the cosmos.

Please bring a story (or poem) about a single tree or a forest, or an orchard, or a grove of trees, whatever is significant to you, that has made a difference to you in  your life, somehow changed how you see yourself and the world around you, including the cosmos. This poem can be yours or be written by someone else. I invite you to also bring a photograph of a tree.

When:

Friday, March 22, 3:00 P.M. - Noon, Sunday, March 24, 2019

Location:

1098 Mepkin Abbey Rd, Moncks Corner, SC 29461

Contribution: $350

*payable to Mepkin Abbey

Flyer

Registration & More Information:

Fr. Guerric

(843) 761-8509, opt 1

gerricheckel@gmail.com

*Registrations are close to being full so we will be starting a waitlist.

Please call Mepkin to ask - you never know!

This moment of surprising yourself with your own words or of being surprised by the poems of others is at the heart of poetry as epiphany. This experience of creative insight helps you to recognize in yourself a deeper, more resonant voice, that has been discouraged, hidden away, perhaps is yet to be discovered or re-discovered!

This is John's 2nd visit to Eremos. He offered a program 2 years ago with Mirabai Starr. His visit reverberated throughout the community and was the catalyst for forming an on-going writing group that brought many blessings. Let us gather again to explore epiphany!

When:

Friday, April 26 - Saturday, April 27th

* Friday evening talk 7 - 9 P.M.

* Retreat 10 AM - 5 PM

Location:
All Saints Episcopal Church, 209 W. 27th Street Austin, TX

Contribution:

 • Friday evening Talk Only - $40

 • Retreat: $195

 • (includes Friday's evening talk + lunch)

Register

*We encourage you to register in advance. However, last minute walk-in's are welcome! Space is limited to 16 people.

We no longer see trees as other beings to commune with. We are not taught to make that connection, not encouraged to speak of trees this way.

~ Thomas Berry

Our Broken Connection to the Natural World

In this weekend retreat, we will explore and strengthen our relationship with trees. We will slow down to listen to what these sacred beings can teach us. To make this journey, we will use poetry and poem-making as a way to express and describe this relationship with ourselves, one another and within the larger context of living as stewards of this planet, express it as part of the fabric of the cosmos.

Please bring a story (or poem) about a single tree or a forest, or an orchard, or a grove of trees, whatever is significant to you, that has made a difference to you in  your life, somehow changed how you see yourself and the world around you, including the cosmos. This poem can be yours or be written by someone else. I invite you to also bring a photograph of a tree.

Magdalena Montagne will host this retreat. Magdalena is a new Poetry Partner of the Institute, bringing poetry and poem-making to elders through WisdomVerse. She has done beautiful work in writing with elders and others in the Santa Cruz County community.

When:

Friday-Sunday, May 17-19, 2019

 • Friday: 6 - 8:30 P.M.

 • Saturday: 10 A.M. - 5 P.M.

 • Sunday: 9:30 A.M. - 12:30 P.M.

Location:

At a private residence amidst trees in the Santa Cruz

Mountains. The address will be given upon registration.

Contribution: $130

*Lunch will be provided on Saturday.

Registration

*Registrations limited to 14.

Flyer

Questions?

For information, please contact:

Magdalena Montagne

(831) 252-5776

magdarose@hughes.net