Dear Travel Companions,
How to begin to thank you for this wonderful gift of our time together today.
How fortunate I am to have found you all at this point of my journey on this day.
Today was the first official Poetry Therapy session I have held, the first of many I know. The session started with love and light and acceptance, and continued with grace and growth.
The simplicity of poetry therapy started to shine through as we started to read poetry together and to just talk about a word or phrase that captured our soul. This process which is just called mirroring back to the poet few words or a sentence. The healing really does begin when words are spoken out loud and when souls are touched by honest simple words.
I have been collecting poetry from friends and those in my Poetic Medicine Cohort who are the other students of John Fox, who as you all know is my Mentor and the founder of The Institute of Poetic Medicine. I have also collected poems from other friends along the way. I had asked each person to share with me one of their poems or a poem from any other poet that has touched their life.
The first poem that was shared was:
The Secret Life of Poems
We write our poems,
expressing our thoughts…..
then something mysterious happens.
The words we write go walking,
traversing other lands,
painting new landscapes with
their iridescent colors,
making new friends,
cavorting like children,
sometimes leaping and spinning,
splashing in puddles and
giggling in trees.
Some sit with sad people who
are grieving in airports
or driving taxis,
or commuting on trains
Completely unaware
that an angel just sat
beside them and
whispered healing words.
Some visit sick people
who are scared or in pain,
or walk with warriors and pilgrims
who pray for one more day,
And the strength to carry on,
the means to overcome,
a light in the darkness,
a sign from above.
Tis then they build a fire
to warm despairing hearts,
add a sword to slay the demons,
even angels playing harps,
Until the dawn arrives anew
and light begins to shine
upon those very same words
that now have come to life.
— Sharon Fletcher
Then with the prompt of:
I write my poems….
We started to write. The beauty that poured out of each heart and soul on to the paper revealed indeed that we were in a sacred space holding sacred each other’s words and each others hearts and each others wounds.
From that prompt we each wrote, this is what I wrote:
I write my poems with no control
I write my poems while listening to the ants
carrying crutches mending their hearts
I hear the spiders webbing their homes
I know there is a purpose
to each letter each dot and each cross
I cross the bridge
and arrive
Home Here Today
The beauty of hearts revealed through words. The space in time that can be nowhere else but here now….
I would say that on this day, each of us arrived not knowing but feeling there was a reason to BE at the workshop. I would say that on this day my work in the world has begun and it has been given wings through the Pilgrimage Within.
Thanks to all those teacher and guides along the way. Thanks to the white cane leading my way. To the birds and the bees, to the elephants and lady bugs playing hide and go seek, to the spiders webbing their home and to the ants holding crutches healing heart along the way. Thanks to the sisters at the shelter who have allowed me to be in their circle while we have written together for over a year. Thanks to the students in schools and universities that have helped me find my voice. Thanks to the rhythm of the universe which has given me a voice and thanks to this breath that comes out and seeks light and sees light as it helps me inhale.
Amen
Truly yours,
Bahareh
If you would like to join us for our next Poetry and Healing Writing workshop, please join us on February 2nd at Cafe Arabia from 4:00-6:00. Please register by emailing me at connect@bahareh.com. Registration fee is 150Dhs proceeds of this workshop will go to the ladies shelters in Abu Dhabi.
If you would like to read more about Poetry Therapy on my Blog:
TEDx Abu Dhabi Video on Poetry Therapy
Teacher John Fox: Student Bahareh: Lesson: Poetry Therapy
I would like us to go forth with the blessings of our great poet Rumi giving us wings for our Pilgrimage Within. If you feel and invitation from the words below reach for your trusted friend the journal and your pen and open your heart and write. Any of the words, any of the images can serve as a promt:
Birdwings
Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror
up to where you are bravely working.
Expecting the worst, you look, and instead,
here’s the joyful face you’ve been wanting to see.
Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or always stretched open,
you would be paralysed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as birdwings.
— Rumi
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