Poetry Therapy

The National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT) is an international organization.  Its members are therapists, helping professionals, health care professionals, poets, journal therapists and enthusiasts and educators interested in the healing power of language.

The term “poetry therapy” encompasses those who previously called themselves “bibliotherapists”—therapists who use all types of literature for therapeutic purposes and journal therapists who guide journal writing for personal growth and healing. Poetry therapists work with the same wide range of clients that any therapists might work with from the institutionalized severely mentally ill to at-risk youth, victims of abuse, prisoners, the elderly and other specific populations.

As the major professional organization for the field, NAPT sponsors the Journal of Poetry Therapy, as well as an annual conference that features workshops, readings, panels and lectures.  Because the field is relatively small, the conferences have developed a reputation for their feeling of intimacy--long-time professionals in the field (those who write the textbooks) are readily accessible to those who are attending for the first time.  

International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy oversees training and the issuing of professional credentials for the field of poetry therapy.  Training requirements are outlined on their website.

To listen to the special extended edition of Poetry Spoken Here on poetry therapy, click here.

James Welch: Native American Writer Too Good To Be Forgotten

Yesterday was Columbus Day, or, as many prefer to refer to it, Indigenous People’s Day. As the problematic history of that holiday becomes better known, it is a good time to remember the enormous talents of James Welch, an award winning Native American novelist and poet, who was a major figure in the Native American Renaissance that involved the reclaiming of indigenous people's heritage through literary expression.

Welch is probably best known for his novel Fools Crow which won the American Book Award as well as other awards. His early book of poems Riding the Earthboy 40 was published in 1971 and reprinted in 1975, praised in the Saturday Review as “alert, powerful and true.” Critics also praised his novels for the way Welch was able to bring his people’s world view alive for the reader.

There are no James Welch poems on PoemHunter, and none on the Poetry Foundation website, though the Foundation site does include a useful essay on his work.

This excerpt is from “Dreaming Winter” in Riding the Earthboy 40.

Don't ask me if these knives are real.
I could paint a king or show a map
the way home—to go like this:
Wobble me back to a tiger's dream
a dream of knives and bones too common
to be exposed. My secrets are ignored.

Here comes the man I love. His coat is wet
and his face is falling like the leaves,
tobacco stains on his Polish teeth.

Dan Wilcox Poet Activist

Dan Wilcox of Albany, NY, hosts the Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center and is a member of the poetry performance group "3 Guys from Albany.”  The group has performed around the country on a quest to perform in all of the Albanys in the United States. In the photo above he's relaxing in downtown Boulder, Colorado on the way to a 3 Guys performance in Albany, Oklahoma (pop. 143).

Dan has been a featured reader at all the important venues in the Albany Capital District and the Hudson Valley. His an active member of Veterans for Peace, an international organization founded in 1985, dedicated to promoting alternatives to war. Dan sometimes performs his poetry at demonstrations.

He also publishes poetry under the imprint, A.P.D. which stands for various things such as (albany’s poetic device, another pleasant day, etc.). the meaning of APD keeps changing to suit his mood.

His poetry recently appeared in the anthology American Society: What Poets See, and in his newest collection, Gloucester Notes, (FootHills Publishing). His chapbook boundless abodes of Albany (Benevolant Bird Press) is available for Kindle from Amazon.  Benevolent Bird Press is the publishing art of Rootdrinker Institute. Dan keeps a blog on which he frequently posts with notes and commentary on the many poetry readings he attends. dwlcx.blogspot.com.

As a photographer, he claims to have the world's largest collection of photos of unknown poets, some of which are available on Flickr.  He talks about the collection in the short that accompanies Gregorio Gomez’ Poetry Spoken Here feature podcast (#007).

Sharon Auberle

Poet-photographer, Sharon Auberle, grew up in the Midwest exploring fields, woods, and waters, often in the company of her grandfather, who passed his love of the outdoors to her.  With this heritage, her years of living in the Southwest, and now in Door County, she finds much to draw on in her writing and photography.

When not writing, Sharon Auberle may be found hanging pictures and poems at her website--Mimi's Golightly Café, which she has authored for nine years.  Her work has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, both print and on-line, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Auberle has facilitated workshops at The Clearing School in Door County, and at Scandia Village--a Sister Bay Retirement Center, as well as children's poetry writing workshops through the Gibraltar school and Sister Bay library summer program.  She has collaborated with poets in Australia and Vietnam for a world writing project called Conversations Across Borders and recently participated in a group of poets teaming with musicians to combine the spoken word with music in a program called Words On Fire. 

Auberle is the author of three books--Saturday Nights at the Crystal Ball; a Memoir in Poetry; and Crow Ink, and EVErywoman, both of which contain her photos; as well as a recent collaboration with poet Ralph Murre in a book called Wind Where Music Was.   Her photos are also featured in poets Jeanie Tomasko and Alice D'Alessio's books.  A CD of her spoken poetry--Something After Burning is available.

Gregorio Gomez: The Ghost Who Walks

Gregorio Gomez is the MC of Chicago’s most infamous and longest running underground poetry venue at “WEEDS.” (Now in its 30th year). Gregorio, who emigrated from Veracruz Mexico has been a major influence in the development of the spoken word scene and many venues of Chicago’s poetry community for over two decades. He has featured at many poetry venues throughout the Midwest, including reading with jazz guitarist Fareed Haque, producer/writer/director Guillermo Gomez-Pena, activist/poet/engraver Carlos Cortez, and poet and founding editor of Tia Chucha Press, Luis Rodriguez who was also a candidate for governor of California.

Gregorio has been Managing Director of Latino Chicago Theater Company which produced an array of plays in the company’s original style of “cartooning” and also introduced many young Latino playwrights who are now being produced by mainstream theater companies.

He has been published in numerous alternative poetry magazines as well as Stray Bullets an anthology published by Tia Chucha Press and the Poetry for Peace Anthology published by the Peace Museum of Chicago.

He is also a film producer having produced two feature films: Israel in Exile, the magic realism world of an aging boxer coming to grips with his demons and Blank Verse, the story of a woman whose husband dies and then begins to have visions that predict the future. He also produced the documentary Not Just Paintings On A Wall that presents the murals of Pilsen, Chicago’s largest Mexican-American neighborhood, along with interviews with the muralists who created them.

To hear Gregorio talk more about his poetry, and why he sometimes refers to himself as "The Ghost Who Walks" click here.

Jude Genereaux

Jude Genereaux was born and raised in Detroit, but says she “got to Wisconsin as soon as she could.” After earning a B.S. degree at Western Michigan University, her career was county government -- elected Barron County Clerk 1981-1997, through to retiring as Door County’s first County Administrator, 1998-2006.

As a writer and poet, Jude focuses on family, her belief that Wisconsin is a treasure, and the years she shared with writer, Norb Blei. Blei was born and raised in Chicago, but moved to Door County, Wisconsin in 1968, where he lived his passion and joy as a writer, teacher and artist. He became the "writer in residence" at The Clearing Folk School, a position he held for 40 years. He was also the editor and publisher of Cross+Roads Press, which was devoted to emerging and accomplished poets, short story writers, essayists, novelists, artists and photographers. He authored 17 books, including his Chicago trilogy: "Neighborhood," "Chi Town" and "The Ghost of Sandburg's Phizzog."

To those who flinch at the word Poetry, Genereaux says “the words to all the music you hear, every wedding or funeral you attend and nearly every meaningful passage in life - is poetry.” She believes we write because we can’t stop ourselves, and there’s always the chance someone out there may desperately need to hear what you have to say.

She’s been published by Cross+Roads Press, the Wisconsin Academy and a number of small presses and newspapers. She’s authored three chapbooks of essay & poetry: Base Camp, More Than One Door and a private collection, Lingerie.   

These days she splits her time between Long Lake and Ellison Bay, Wisconsin. To hear Jude's full Poetry Spoken Here interview, click here.

Honoring Jeff Poniewaz

Jeff Poniewaz and Antler had been partners for 40 years when Jeff succumbed in December, 2014 after a long battle with cancer.  Roughly 6 weeks later, in late January, 2015, Antler paid tribute with his own words of remembrance and a reading of Jeff’s poems as part of the annual Woodland Pattern Book Center’s Poetry Marathon in Milwaukee.

The marathon, the 21st, brought together hundreds of poets, writers and lovers of the arts for a reading that went from 10 a.m. through midnight.  Over 150 poets and writers from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the region performed to benefit Woodland Pattern’s 2015 programming in literature and the arts, including their afterschool program and youth summer camp

Poniewaz had a long history of eco-activism. In 1988, he organized an Earth Day Poetry Celebration, in part out of frustration with what he saw as the Reagan administration's anti-environmental policies. That event spawned the Earth Poets & Musicians group, which performs annually to celebrate Earth Day and raise funds for ecological organizations. Poniewaz earned a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where for many years he taught a course on the literature of ecological vision.

Jeff’s poetry was praised by the major Beat writers. Allen Ginsberg said he wrote with “impassioned prescient ecological Whitmanesque/Thoreauvian verve and wit” and Lawrence Ferlinghetti praised his poem “September 11, 2001” as “the best poem I’ve read re 9/11.”

These lines from a 1994 poem, “Why Young Men Wore Their Hair Long in the Sixties,” shows the level of wit he brought to serious topics.

Because they could feel the deforestation of the Amazon

        breathing down their necks even then.

Because half the world’s trees have been cut down

         since 1950,

Because they didn’t care if some bigot

        thought they looked like girls--

Because they had to become long-haired Indians

        to expiate the genocide of the Indians,

 Because Einstein’s hair burst from his skull in protest

        of radiation sickness making people’s hair fall out

For more information on the annual Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon, click here.

To hear our recording of Antler's remembrance of Jeff at the Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon, click here.