Poetic Medicine for the Wounded Healer

We are excited to collaborate with the UCSF MERI CENTER for Education in Palliative Care to bring a day-long experiential writing/healing workshop to Mesa Refuge, led by alum Redwing Keyssar, RN and Mike Rabow, MD. Join us for a day of listening and allowing words to flow through us for anyone in the “Healing Arts”.

The practice of “poem making” offers a means to express the metaphors and meaning of the suffering we experience in ourselves and bear witness to in others. Poetry can be a salve for the heart and soul. It is a way of speaking what is true in our hearts and is often difficult to access without a creative spark.  

Listening to and writing poetry can be a powerful element in the healing process for those who suffer serious illness, those who work with people with serious illness and anyone who faces loss and grief.

Writing poetry in community is like attending a meditation retreat. The instruction for most beginners when learning to meditate is to simply bring oneself back to the breath, each time the mind wanders. In poem-making, the instruction is to bring oneself back to the heart and along with a deep breath, see if one can open a little bit wider. When we witness each other in this process, in a circle of open-heartedness, something magical happens!

“Poetic Medicine” is a term coined by the poet and teacher John Fox, who wrote the seminal 1997 text “Poetic Medicine; The Healing Art of Poem-Making.”

In the beginning of Fox’s book he states:

 “Poetry is a natural medicine; it is like a homeopathic tincture derived from the stuff of life itself—your experience…Poetry provides guidance, revealing what you did not know you knew before you wrote or read the poem. This moment of surprising yourself with your own words of wisdom or of being surprised by the poems of others is at the heart of poetry as healer.”

Sliding scale fee:  $75-$150; some scholarships available (please inquire with [email protected])

Coffee/tea/snacks provided

Please bring your own lunch

Further information will be sent to participants

Registration is limited to 18 people. Register here.

Redwing Keyssar, RN, Author, Poet, and Mesa Alumni of the Marion Weber Fellowship, has been leading poetic medicine workshops since 2020, supporting over 5000 people internationally. Redwing is a perpetual student of life, and a seeker of visions through dreams, songs and poetry.

Michael W. Rabow, MD, is a professor of medicine at UCSF, associate chief of education and mentoring in the Division of Palliative Medicine, the founding medical director of the MERI Center, and a poet.

The MERI CENTER for Education in Palliative Care, like Mesa Refuge, is solely philanthropically funded—through grants and generous donors.   If you would like more information :

https://MERI.UCSF.EDU