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Mar 23, 20231 min read

The Only Gift to Bring | John Fox

Please note: in the flyer below it lists how to donate by check. If you would like to donate via PayPal instead, please click here and where it gives the option to add a note, type The Only Gift to Bring.

The first page of a flyer. It reads: Receive "The Only Gift to Bring" A New Book of Poems by John Fox With Your Donation Sponsored by The Institute Poetic Medicine "A window to the unknown but also the true has been opened to you. And it will help you." Odysseus Elytis Athens, Greece Nobel Prize in Literature 1979 from a letter to John Fox written in 1987 in response to his poetry It's my pleasure to announce the availability of a chapbook of poems "The Only Gift to Bring." This is the first print publication of my poetry in over thirty years! These 24 poems represent 40 years of writing. They are not arranged chronologically, but I trust you can discover a thread in the spirit of them--a thread that runs through a deep dedication and attention to life and death, to discovery and listening to the unknown. The book is a way to support the work of The Institute for Poetic Medicine. Your donation of $20 or more to IPM will assure that you receive a free copy! Please send your check, made out to The Institute for Poetic Medicine, to P. O. Box 60189, Palo Alto, CA 94306. Indicate on the notation line of the check: "The Only Gift to Bring to Bring." Read what others say about "The Only Gift to Bring" --> "Consider What Happens" Consider what happens/upon hearing a poem/that moves you. The nod/of your head, tucking/your chin close/to your chest, as if/stopping to rest, as if you could cry now/in the middle of a long journey,/Here, whatever you regret having forgotten/even with your aching tiredness/(which you cannot forget) all of a sudden/turns to a surprisingly vibrant sky/as your eyes widen ever-so-slightly/in a recognition that shimmers/under your skin, wells-up/into a calm line-of-sight/that is your own and goes on/almost forever./Astonished, you walk outside breathing/and slowly stroll in the fresh air/suddenly aware that back in your house/someone new, a stranger you like,/has arrived. -- John Fox

Page 2 of a flyer that reads: "I'll be living with your beautiful, caring book for awhile. Thank you for bringing it into the world." Geoffery Oelsner Fayettvile, Arkansas "We are enjoying your poems and read them to each other." Mary Watson and Jack Weller San Francisco, California "I've read most all of the poems twice in less than 24 hours. The work is wonderful but the book itself is, also. Each poem has lines that resonate and flash out." Peg Edera Portland, Oregon "Beautiful, beautiful. I have loved your poems. Thank you is all I can think to say." Audre Bley Menlo Park, California ~~ from the Introduction to "My Hand Touches the Sea," published in 1984: "These poems come out of the tradition of Kabir and Tagore. They are bhavanas, praises to God, praises to our humanity in search for its true nature. These songs, as Kabir might put it, are 'the breath inside the breath.'" Stephen Levine Taos, New Mexico author of "Who Dies?" and "A Gradual Awakening"

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