The Passing of Two Great Practitioners of Poetry-as-Healer | John Fox, PPM

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, giftedness, insight and service – all of these rooted and blossoming in their lives and in their practice of poetry-as-healer. Mari and Wayne were both dedicated, fine, powerful poets and they added this unusual grace – by being superb in showing others how to make companions of poetry, poem-making and their creative voice.

Mari Alschuler

Their blessing, the direct experience by which I treasure each – 30 years of goodness, courage, love, vulnerability, giftedness, insight and service – all of these rooted and blossoming in their lives and in their practice of poetry-as-healer. Mari and Wayne were both dedicated, fine, powerful poets and they added this unusual grace – by being superb in showing others how to make companions of poetry, poem-making and their creative voice.

Wayne lived with Parkinson’s Disease for 20 years and died from complications related to PD. Mari was diagnosed with Locally Advanced Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer (LAPC) on December 2024. The PD and cancer had different time spans. Their approaches in responding to their illness were different.

Wayne Gilbert

Wayne said he was a “conscientious objector” to the approach of “fighting” PD or using words that described an attitude fighting. Mari thought of herself as Wonder Woman, battling for something larger than the tumor – fighting for her life, for her beloved, Rosalynda, and for their family.

I knew Wayne and Mari simultaneously, yet in different dimensions of this healing poetry work. Those dimensions are what makes their impact on poetry therapy dynamic and profound. I am so grateful that they each reached and touched me through those living, breathing dimensions.

Wayne was wonderful being, in so many ways, so much kindness

and so much love of poetry as well as teaching so many to speak

from their heart. Thank you for the sad news and thank you

for your brief review of many parts of his wonderful Giving life.


~ James Fadiman PhD

Mari’s thirst for knowledge that was contagious. She was exemplary

professor of social work, a masterful Mad Lib aficionado, a poetry therapy mentee

whose expertise on poetic forms, art and applications for therapeutic means

was beyond superior.  Serving all populations, she accomplished this with

expertise, creativity and brilliance.

~
Deborah Eve Grayson, PhD, LMHC, RPT