Seven Gifts: Poetry As a Pathway for Renewal
John Fox
In this Friday evening talk and weekend retreat, John will lead us on a journey that names “seven gifts” of renewal
given to us by poetry and poem-making. The intention is to serve as encouragement and catalyst for your vocation and
personal journey. These gifts and this renewal are accessible in the midst of living this life—with its sorrow and joy, travail and adventure, the daily experience of being human and a deeper spiritual current that speaks to a greater mystery—poetry provides a perspective and felt-experience that can be recognized and
received as gift.
Seven Gifts
Discovery of meaning and connection.
A way to sharpen the practice of mindfulness.
Poetry-as-Healer encourages embodiment.
Poem-Making invites play and imagination.
A way of asking questions, where a question is not in
search of an answer. Questions ask to be held.
Relationships infused with compassion,
vulnerability and courage.
The gift shared with another.
Our time together will include gentle, evocative and poignant writing prompts that will reveal to us these gifts. No prior experience with poem-making is necessary—and “beginner’s mind” is welcomed among all participants.
What Will This Give You—Along with Seven Gifts?
John’s intention is that this experience will: a) support your daily self-care, and b) increase understanding and practice of this healing art in educational, medical and helping professions, and c) act as a catalyst for renewing your vocation and as a spiritual appreciation of these seven gifts.
John Fox is a certified poetry therapist and associate professor at the California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco, California. He also teaches at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology and John F. Kennedy University in
the Bay Area. He is the author of Finding What You Didn’t Lose: Expressing Your Truth and Creativity Through Poem-Making and Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making. He offers workshops throughout the United States.
Cost $425 includes double occupancy room, board and tuition