April 2026 Letter | John Fox, PPM

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.

~ Henry David Thoreau

Dear Friends of Poetic Medicine,

Is there a moment today you especially paused to treasure? By “treasure” I mean that a precious moment and what was happening within it met your heart space and you felt lifted, even expanded, infused.

You felt lifted and through that lift, time slowed. Time may have not only have slowed—your connection made with that moment may have transcended time.

I believe, after 40 years of making poems with people, this creative process is, at the very least, a two-way experience. It might be more accurate to say it is an infinite loop. A loop that includes much more than you and I can see.

I mean that the treasure of the blossoming flower needs you seeing it as a treasure if it has a chance to be whole. Rainer Maria Rilke wrote:

I know that nothing has ever been real 

without my beholding it. 

All becoming has needed me. 

My looking ripens things

and they come toward me, to meet and be met. 

That seeing, your beholding is the possibility and power of poem-making. Poem-making helps us to see our lives—life and death—in a way that ripens—ripening what is in the world, ripening others, ripening yourself.

May I Share a Story about Being Lifted Up?

If I am stepping down a slight rise, like stepping off the curb on a street, I have, using a prosthetic leg the very real possibility to stumble. I need to focus and be very careful in making that step.

Here is my story:

I was trying to increase the water flow in the spouts of a lovely fountain outside my apartment.This fountain is my meditation object, every morning I fill it with water—a few inches—before it will run optimally.

This afternoon, I noticed that a few of the water spouts in the upper basin, were blocked. I wanted to unblock them. To do this I needed to step up over a brick hedge into a garden surrounding the fountain. I made this step, carefully.

I poked through fountain spouts and increased the water flow. Then I tried to step down over that brick hedge and I lost my balance. I fell backwards. Fortunately, I did not hit my head on the fountain. I fell backwards into the garden area, flat on my back. 

As I fell to the ground, I cried out.

Out of the apartment next to mine, quickly emerged my neighbor, Rafael. He heard my cry and wanted to see if I was all right. I felt shaken but I said I was all right. I appreciated his concern more than I can say.

Laying on my back, I struggled to sit up. Rafael witnessed this. I eventually sat up and put my bent legs and feet over that brick hedge, I tried for a moment to rise, but I could not stand on my own.

I needed help. I surrendered to my vulnerability.

Rafael, a tall, younger man, leaned towards me, he extended his arms and hands. I reached out my arms and hands and took his large hands in mine. Our hands grasped tight.

This precious moment I deeply treasured.

Rafael set himself firmly to lift me, to pull me up. This is what I mean literally about being lifted in a treasured moment! Rafael leaned back and lifted me up to my feet.

This required a moment of strength on the part of Rafael. It required a willingness and reciprocal response if not equal strength on my part.

There was a depth of connection. I believe my seeing at this moment ripened things. This was helpfulness that could be seen as scriptural.

Rainer Maria Rilke praised how it is possible to enter this sacred place by treasuring connections. 

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.

One can be grateful for—that is—I am grateful for knowing how my “real life” is free of time. I learned this timelessness, this moment to treasure, when Rafael lifted me up.

I make a prayer that asks me to look around for someone who needs lifting up. That someone, like was so true for me, might be you.

Here is a haiku for Rafael:

I needed lifting

Your hands reached out to me

Together, we did it.

The Poetic Medicine Summit 2026-2027: Beginning April 24 - 26

I wonder, considering how fraught these days are with violence & injustice being praised, with wrong speech & unconcern so rife—I know that these moments of being lifted-up, of lifting someone up, they are also happening in a multitude of ways.

I want to bring our attention here. Have you felt yourself lifted by someone, by something?What about you as the one who lifts? I invite you to write this.

Lifting! You have been hearing us at The Institute for Poetic Medicine treasuring this—we are holding the first Poetic Medicine Summit.

This is a BIG and SWEET lift for The Institute for Poetic Medicine. We are showing for the first time to the whole world the benefit & blessing, gifts & grit, possibilities & presence of our field:

poetry-as-healer, poetry therapy, poetic medicine.

We as an Institute know this since our founding twenty-one years ago. I know this from forty years ago—and well before that.

It is a big effort for IPM, and we are feeling that the process is sweetening us all. We anticipate that this will overflow to all who attend. I realize, even as I write this letter, that the word “summit” has an intense meaning:

the highest point or part, as of a hill; top; apex.

the highest state or degree; acme; zenith.

By Summit, we mean that we intend to bring you the very best of who we are, what we do and how sharing this will inform & hearten, inspire & feed you.

You will not need oxygen to reach this summit. There will be in this world an abundance of fresh air. You will be with companions who will join in generating curiosity & encouragement as we all learn how poetic medicine is helping so many people. I wrote about this sense and spirit of community in the first stanza of my poem The Language of Air:

When people, who, with hearts

and minds engaged take care

with one another and long enough

to pause, to let silence

(and words spoken from the heart)

have a deeper share

of whatever time is given them —

so that our breath, mine and yours,

enriched by listening, touches air. 

When Rafael, after my troubling fall, helped me to stand up by lifting me to my feet—that was me reaching a summit.

We are here, we are here together, to lift one another. You can trust this truth with our opening weekend programs: John Fox, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Amanda Johnston.

Friday, April 24^th

John Fox

4:30 pm - 6:30 pm Pacific Time

Connections: Synapses of Flourishing in Creating Human Experience

The inspiration and ground for this presentation is expressed in those lines by Rilke that I quoted earlier in this letter: 

Bless the spirit that makes connections,

or truly we live in what we imagine.

Clocks move along-side our real life

with steps that are ever the same.

I believe it is up to you and I to live in and create together “what we imagine.” May what we discover “what we imagine” by being open to and accepting of connections, seemingly small, significant and surprising, being offered to us each-and-every day. Connection and disconnection are what we will explore! 

Saturday April 25^th 

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

9 am - 1 pm Pacific Time

Writing Ourselves into Wonder: Meeting Difficult Times with Poetry

In the dark times

will there also be singing? 

Yes, there will also be singing

about the dark times.

~ Bertolt Brecht, “Motto”

In every moment there is the chance to witness the ever-unfolding story of our own lives and the story of our world. Though a poem can’t fix things, can’t heal us, can’t change the facts, reading and writing poems can change the way we meet the facts, and this can change everything.

Together we’ll read poems, converse about them, use them as launching points for our own writing and talk about process. We’ll explore playing with metaphors and paradox, letting curiosity lead us past the edge of what we think we know into new possibilities for framing a moment.

Wonder will be our guide. We’ll be less interested in writing something perfect and more interested in discovering our own stumbling blocks and epiphanies. 

Sunday, April 26^th

Amanda Johnston

9 am - 1 pm Pacific Time

Poetry as Praise​

Have you ever wanted to celebrate someone in your life or mark a special occasion with a poem? During times of joy and great challenges, people turn to poems that connect us through our shared human experience. Praise poems carry wonder and gratitude, and allow us to empathize with others.

In this workshop, participants will explore poetic forms of praise, create new works, and learn how to identify and celebrate the awe-inspiring everyday moments of life.

Every Month in 2026 – More Poetic Medicine Summit!

Every month after April (our shout-out to National Poetry Month) there will be excellent programs to tap into. These programs are led by stellar people who bring a deep well of experience in the poetic medicine way. They are a combination of humility, goodness and are relationally superb. I trust they will lift you up!

Here is the monthly list through the end of 2026: 

Saturday, May 23 

Poetic Medicine in the River of Cruelty an informational session with writing time facilitated by James Elsaesser, PPM 

Thursday, June 11 

Our Mystic Heart: Expanding Our Inner Light During Turbulent Times an experiential session facilitated by Susan O'Connell, PPM & Terri Goslin-Jones, PPM

Thursday, July 16

Healing Words Amid Suffering: Poetic Medicine and Chaplaincy an informational session with writing time facilitated by Witek Nowosiad, PPM

Saturday, August 22

The Power of Poetry to Create Community Behind Bars an informational session with writing time facilitated by Circle Up Austin

Thursday, September 17 

1-2:30pm Pacific Time.

Loss, Losing and Loosening: Poetic Medicine as a Communal Ritual for Grief and Loss an experiential session facilitated by The MERI Center at UCSF 

Thursday, October 15 

1-2:30pm Pacific Time

The Impact of Community-Based Poetic Medicine for Grief and Loneliness: A Study by the UCSF MERI Center an informational session with writing time facilitated by The MERI Center at UCSF

Saturday, November 14

Poetry of Homelands and Hope: Uplifting Refugee and Immigrant Voices toward Creating Communities of Welcome and Belonging an experiential session facilitated by IPM Poetry Partner Merna Ann Hecht

December 2026 – Date to be determined

Poetry as a Tool for Wellness an experiential session facilitated by The PTW Leadership Team: Kristin Thompson, Athena McClendon, and Sharon Lowe

I could go on about how each of these programs and the people involved have evolved over the years but that would make this letter book-length. If you have any questions you can write to: info@poeticmedicine.org.

Funding the Poetic Medicine Summit – You Can Help

As you can imagine, this Poetic Medicine Summit is a way for IPM to increase our capacity to reach out. Your financial support, which can be considered a donation, will make our work available to so many more people. You will have access to these programs. You can choose the level that is right for you. To find out more, please click here.

I want to offer my sincere and deep thanks for the Poetic Medicine Summit Committee: Mary Price, Sharon Lowe, Susan O’Connell, and Janet Childs. I especially want to thank Kate Teague who has contracted with IPM to manage and guide this Summit. Kate is doing such marvelous work, collaborating closely with Mary. Kate and I will be working together during my presentation.

There is more to share, but this letter is long enough. There are going to be great things to report at another time.

Please take good care. I hope to see you along the poetic medicine way. 

Kindness,

John Fox

Founder of IPM