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November 2026 | Poetry of Homelands and Hope | Merna Ann Hecht
Poetry of Homelands and Hope: Uplifting Refugee and Immigrant Voices toward Creating Communities of Welcome and Belonging Part of the Poetic Medicine Summit 2026 year-long series The Expressive Art of Poetry Saturday, November 7, 2026 10:00 - 11:30 am Pacific Time Register for this event here: https://givebutter.com/Summit2026Nov7 *Registration is NOT required for those who purchased a Summit Full Year Ticket. Registration for the full series of events, including recording
IPM Team
Sep 303 min read
Honoring Wayne Gilbert | John Fox, PPM
My dear friend and superb IPM Poetry Partner, Wayne Gilbert, died on September 23rd of 2025. He lived with Parkinson’s Disease since 2005. I am offering my love and care to Wayne's family. Wayne Gilbert I am carrying such gratitude that Wayne entered my life in 1995. We had a very fine steadfast friendship since that time — that steadfast spirit continues. As a Poetry Partner Wayne brought poetry to men in the Sterling Maximum Security Prison monthly for five years. This
IPM Team
Sep 231 min read
September 2026 Letter | John Fox, PPM
September 21, 2026 International Peace Day Dear Friend of Poetic Medicine, It is a blessing to write to you about our work. I feel blessings surround us at 360 degrees. I know we have significant challenges, even dire circumstances, that need our attention as a country and world. The Institute for Poetic Medicine exists to respond to and meet those challenges and circumstances. We exist to nourish and encourage what could be better. We are committed to discover what w
IPM Team
Sep 219 min read
Introducing Marie Boucher, Poet Laureate of Monterey County | John Fox, PPM
I met Marie Boucher earlier this year during the visit of Diné Elder Lupita McClanahan to Mountain View and Carmel Vale, CA. This meeting was such good fortune, truly a blessing. Marie and her work with poetry, is a stellar expression of the healing power of poems. Marie was helping IPM get word out about Lupita’s visit as Lupita taught about Hozho, the Beauty Way. This visit was so successful – we welcomed over 250 people into the Hidden Arts Center in Carmel Valley. Mari
IPM Team
Sep 203 min read
Connections Workshop in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, Oct 2026
In Partnership with Circles of Courageous Commons Friday-Sunday, October 23-25, 2026 Connections: Synapses of Flourishing in Creating Human Experience A Fall Retreat with John Fox, PPM "Bless the spirit that makes connections, for truly we live in what we imagine. Clocks move along-side our real life with steps that are ever the same." ~Rainer Maria Rilke We will begin with dinner on Friday evening and end with lunch on Sunday. All meals will be included. Location will be a
IPM Team
Sep 182 min read
Poetry of Nature and the Stellar Lives of Wendell Berry & Annie Dillard | John Fox, PPM
Geoff Oelsner and NanLeah continue to bring their great and beautiful gifts to guiding the 8th year of Poetry of Nature. Often, I feel that what we are doing at IPM – and especially with PON – flows under the national and world radar. That may be true, but that does not dimmish the beauty it delivers each month. That feels especially true that in the past few weeks we have learned about the life passage of two earth-loving human beings – Wendell Berry and Annie Dillard
IPM Team
Sep 165 min read
A Tribute to Wendell Berry | Geoff Oelsner
Wendell Berry, a truly wise man, died at age 92 on August 31. Let’s let him speak for himself on the topic of death right off. The following 4 part poem is from his book The Country of Marriage: Testament 1. Dear relatives and friends, when my last breath Grows large and free in air, don’t call it death — A word to enrich the undertaker and inspire His surly art of imitating life; conspire Against him. Say that my body cannot now Be improved upon; it has no fault to show To t
IPM Team
Sep 813 min read
Wendell Berry: An Invitation Into Seeing | NanLeah
Wendell Berry: An Invitation Into Seeing by NanLeah The Peace of Wild Things When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind
NanLeah
Sep 13 min read
Spider Rock Prayer | Bob Steinberg
If a line or phrase resonates with you, we invite you to use it as a starting point to create your own poem. We welcome you to share your poem with the IPM community here. This poem was included in IPM's August 2026 Newsletter. Access the full Newsletter here.
IPM Team
Aug 261 min read
October 2026 | The Impact of Community-Based Poetic Medicine for Grief and Loneliness | The MERI Center at UCSF
The Impact of Community-Based Poetic Medicine for Grief and Loneliness: A Study by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) MERI Center for Humanity in Healthcare; Because Every Story Matters Thursday, October 15 1:00 - 2:00 pm Pacific Time Register for this event here: https://givebutter.com/Summit2026October15 *Registration is NOT required for those who purchased a Summit Full Year Ticket. Part of the Poetic Medicine Summit 2026 year-long series The Expressive A
IPM Team
Aug 263 min read
August 2026 Letter | John Fox, PPM
Dear Poetic Medicine Friends, The call of poetry-as-healer has such deep roots in my life. I suddenly remembered a particular root the other day. I want to share with you that connection/root from 1975 of reaching the marginalized with poetry. Please read on! Stephen Levine, Joy Shieman & My Path of Poetic Medicine Usually, I say that it got going in 1981 when I first met Stephen Levine as a participant in his Conscious Living, Conscious Dying retreats. I became more than a p
IPM Team
Aug 237 min read
Honoring the Life and Service of Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen | John Fox, PPM
Honoring the Life and Service of Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen by John Fox, PPM The Institute for Poetic Medicine offers a deeply felt gassho* bow to the life and service of Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen. Surrounded by loved ones, Rachel passed away peacefully on August 8, 2026. She was 88 years old. Commonweal, the Cancer Support Place and Community she founded with Michael Lerner in 1976, writes: Join us in celebrating the life of one of Commonweal’s most beloved voices: Rachel Naomi Rem
IPM Team
Aug 103 min read
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