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 Remen, MD. Rachel was a pioneer and influential leader in the field of healing and integrative medicine.

She was co-founder and medical director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, which she helped build alongside Commonweal co-founder Michael Lerner, and which was featured in Bill Moyers’ landmark PBS series Healing and the Mind.

She was also founder and director of the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness, and creator of The Healer’s Art, a curriculum that has reached tens of thousands of medical students at schools around the world and reshaped how generations of physicians understand their calling.

When I watched Bill Moyers’ Healing and the Mind in 1993 on PBS, which featured Moyers’ beautiful interview of Rachel Remen, and in particular showed people with cancer writing and speaking poetry as a healing modality.

I wrote to her with admiration. I was in the earlier years of my poetry therapy work and was thrilled to see a “poetry circle” in practice. I don’t prefer the word “perfect” yet it was exactly that.

Rachel responded to my letter. In her distinctive, large, blocky print, she wrote:

“Your work is visionary and moving.”

I put that in my back pocket with great cheer and strong hope. It was surely her way to “see” a person at their essence, and I felt seen!

It was a few years later, in 1996, when writing Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making for publication by Jeremy P. Tarcher – we sent the manuscript to Rachel, asking if she would write a testimonial.

She responded by writing PAGES.

We asked her if we could make those pages the Preface to Poetic Medicine.  God Bless her for granting us permission. That book, still in print since 1997, is graced with her words:

“Writing poetry together heals loneliness. What is true for someone on the deepest level is often true for us all. Reading a poem aloud and listening to the poems of others can heal the alienation which is so much a part of our world. These days, much of life is masked. Poetry wears no mask. In taking off the masks we have worn to be safe, to protect ourselves, to win approval, we become less vulnerable. Less alone. Our pain becomes just pain. It is no longer suffering.

We may have lost faith in our ability to write poems, just as we have lost faith in our ability to heal. Recovering the poet strengthens the healer and sets free the unique song that is at the heart of every life.”

~ Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.  from the Preface to Poetic Medicine

This connection with Commonweal –with Rachel Remen and Michael Lerner – carried on, with the help of my friend Toby Symington and the Lloyd Symington Family Foundation, Commonweal has held national medical conferences, rooted in The Healer’s Art – and for many of those, I was invited to serve on the faculty**.

It was always special and a blessing to be in her presence.

You may have your own connection to call to heart. She is the author of Kitchen Table Wisdom, My Grandfather’s Blessing and a children’s book, The Birthday of the World. Wise & loving, personal & surprising, delightful & filled with grace, these books, which you may already know, or they could bring Naomi into the place where you are now. These personal connections are important to me – yet what Rachel Naomi Remen gave to this life is so immense and extraordinary. Please find out more.

There will be a celebration for her on Saturday, October 3^rd at 2 – 4 p.m. Pacific. I imagine that Commonweal will provide a life-stream to this.

Again, that gassho – placing my palms and fingers together in a gesture of connection, with a deep bow, that is what we at IPM offer now to Rachel.

*Gassho symbolizes respect, the Buddhist teachings, and the Dharma. But it also is an expression of our feelings of gratitude and our connection with each other. It symbolizes the realization that our lives are supported by all others.

**John Fox - 2025 Public Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care at Commonweal — New Paradigms in Healing, Poetry as a Pathway to Tenderness & Comfort, Truth-telling & Transformation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvvH8pgldEQ

from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation's Facebook