By Kasey Varga June 4, 2014
John Fox, Certified Poetry Therapist and Expressive Arts Therapy faculty at California Institute of Integral Studies since 2000 recently took part in a book launch for Tell me Again: Poetry and Prose from the Healing Art of Writing at Diesel Books in Larkspur.
The book was the bi-product of the weeklong Healing Art of Writing Conference that took place at Dominican University in July of 2012. The Conference, organized by Dr. David Watts, clinical professor of Medicine at UCSF and co-producer/creator of the PBS documentary Healing Words: Poetry and Medicine, aimed "to strengthen compassionate understanding between healthcare providers and [patients]" (David Watts). John Fox has taken part in the Healing Art of Writing Conference for many years.
Tell Me Again was published by UC Medical Humanities Press in February 2014. Fox's essay is entitled Letting the Light In. "Tell me Again is a powerful collection of poetry and prose that springs from the deepest black wells of human experience" (Jenny Qi, Executive Editor of Synapse: The UCSF student newspaper).
The book brings together the work of people who have been patients, who are physicians, who are professional poets and who in some way are impacted by the world of healing and medicine. "Being cured of a disease is not the same as being healed, and...expressive writing promotes both spiritual and physical healing" (David Watts).
Tell me Again is now available for purchase through the UCSF School of Medicine. Healing Words, the PBS documentary featuring John's work with patients in a hospital setting, is also available for purchase.
Banner Image Photo by Julie Jordan Scott
