Dear Friend of Poetic Medicine, …whose morning-time begins, like fresh linen smoothed flat by the weathered hands of this one life That’s Where You Can Hear Good Singing These lines I am drawing out from my poem January 1 say that in some way we, that you and I, even with our weathered hands, have fresh linen to start this year with. I have quoted this from Rainer Maria Rilke many times: You must give birth to your images. They are the future waiting to be born. I want our fu

Dear Friend of Poetic Medicine, Thriving & Comfort, in the Room Together I hope you are well and thriving. This time of year, a transitional passage into the new, could be considered a place where you envision the possible. I cheer that possible for you. If this letter finds you in a more difficult place, I am sending gentle encouragement and comfort. Comfort? Yes, comfort may be what most of us long for, especially in these days of harsh, hurtful actions and rhetoric in some

Dear Poetic Medicine Friends, The months roll on and on! This morning I am feeling that this is different than what relationships are about. When I begin this letter “Dear Poetic Medicine Friends” I slow down and someone’s face will appear. I slow down and drop inside to hear what my heart wants to say to you. The Choice to Slow Down In order to “drop inside” I slow down. I must slow down. Wherever that mysterious place is, the clock isn’t ticking. Good fortune my heart is be

Wayne Gilbert: July 1, 1950 - September 23, 2025 Mari Alschuler: May 3, 1958 - September 20, 2025 I am writing to share news about the deaths of two brilliant people in the field of poetry therapy. Wayne Gilbert and Mari Alschuler are those brilliant people and practitioners. I met Wayne and Mari in the same year – 1995. They died this September. Their blessing, the direct experience by which I treasure each – 30 years of goodness, courage, love, vulnerability, giftedn

Dear Friend of Poetic Medicine,   To begin this letter I want to pause to remember Mari Alschuler -- an important person in my experience...

Bill Moyers (1934-2025) died at the age of 91 on Thursday, June 26th. I am grateful to him beyond measure. When reading his obituary in...

June 15, 2025 Dear Poetic Medicine Friend, I am astonished that I date this letter as being written on June 15. Ohmigod, half of this...

Dear Poetic Medicine Friend, Good day to you! It is my strong hope that this letter finds you well, even thriving. My hope is touched...

Treasuring a Team and The Joy of Teamwork “For our goal was not only the East, or rather the East was not only a country and something...

I introduced my letter to you with the subtitle If You Put Your Foot Down in this Landscape .  What follows here is a portion of that...

April 8, 2025 Dear Poetic Medicine Friends, Poetry is not a very popular art form these days, but it is an essential part of human life. ...

A Blessing for the Woods   Before I leave, almost without noticing, before I cross the road and head out to what I have intentionally postponed –   Let me stop to say a blessing for these woods: for crows barking and squirrels scampering, for trees and fungus and multi-colored leaves,   for the way sunlight laces shadows through each branch and leaf of tree, for these paths that take me in, for these paths that lead me out.      Michael S. Glaser Michael Glaser It was in 2014