Poetry by the Sea

I will conduct a one-day class at the Mercy by the Sea Conference Center in Madison, CT, on July 22 designed to show how writing poetry helps better manage emotional trauma.

Here’s the deal:

1.    If you like writing poetry and have written poems in the past, learning about healing poetry will appeal to you and you will be comfortable doing this.

2.    If you’ve never written a poem, perfect! You will be comfortable doing this. Because it’s not the quality of the writing that matters. It’s the act of writing that is the therapy – the place where the healing happens.

The day will be spent discovering how celebrated poets use their craft to write uplifting and emotionally healing poems. Through writing and sharing poems, you will be guided toward arousing your poetic mind – one that’s attuned to:

• Overcoming loneliness 
• Engaging and connecting with your world
• Appreciating the awe of living
• Creating a new sense of purpose when bad things happen 

In a supportive, no-critique, mindful space, “Pathways to Peace” is not intended to teach you how to write better poems, but how to feel better by writing poems.

If you’re dealing with emotional trauma – such as grief, illness, care-giving, rupture of a relationship, or the loss of purpose and hope – you’re invited. 

In this class we’ll get to know easy-to-understand poems that are beautiful, uplifting, spiritual, and healing, and we’ll look at how famous writers have used poetry to address their own personal trauma. I will de-mystify poetry, and show you how to write your own healing poems. The day will include time for writing and sharing insights.

Academic research has shown that poetry, in particular, has exceptional healing power over emotional trauma – enhancing immune system function, physical health, pain, sleep, and overall functioning. 

Fee for the program is $90 and includes a full lunch. Begins at 9:30 and wraps up by 4 P.M. You can register here.

I would appreciate your help in spreading the word about the “Pathways to Peace” day to your friends and social media networks.

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Mercy by the Sea Retreat and Conference Center, set along the shores of Long Island Sound as pictured above, has hosted programs, retreats, and events since 1972. Its thirty-three acres are home to diverse eco-systems and wildlife.

For those of you who don’t know my background, I’m a former journalist, corporate communications executive, and owner of a corporate communications agency. I’m author of four non-fiction books and a novel, write poetry that appears in numerous literary magazines, and publish a weekly blog – like the one you’re reading. In conjunction with the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge and The Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, I teach patients and caregivers to write poetry to address the trauma of a cancer diagnosis. I also host a bi-weekly Zoom workshop in healing poetry.