Jeff McCallum

I am afraid I have been on a lengthy political rampage, but during the quiet times when I share poems with my fellow poets, friends or fellow cancer survivors I am always refreshed by the healing power and love released by the miracle a poem can be.

I have written earlier about the wonderful fulfillment that is the week long Writing the Medical Experience held each July at Sarah Lawrence College. My friend and fellow poet John Fox is on the faculty and I have neglected to mention the wonder and power of his healing touch.

I was fortune enough to be a guest at John’s presentation last spring at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing (the same people who brought Thomas Moore to the Twin Cities) and his two day workshop at Macalester College. I witnessed the healing power of poetry in action and would highly recommend any of his workshops for individuals and institutions in search of that little something extra, that intangible magic which enables human beings to step into themselves and thereby step outside of themselves.

John’s web site is www.poeticmedicine.org

I dedicate the following poems to John and his healing work.

Poetry Therapy

and when we need to speak of pain
of trial
of fear and trepidation
when knowingly or not
our tongues are tied
our voices
lost
befuddle us with silence
strange miracle
a single perfect note
upon some other instrument
heard
will prompt the volume of our story

Silent Words

There is something terrifying in silence

in the after shock of being told

you are no longer a part of something

soon will not be of this earth

are no longer loved

or needed

in some way different from what it is

you desire

More terrifying

is the silence that hangs in the air we breathe

the heavy

deep

disorienting fog

that descends when words are unsaid

and we assume their sound

and the shape of their meaning

struggle to live under the weighty blanket

of what is not said

or cease to live fully

carrying the burden of not saying

what is in our heart

such things as we need to say

to give voice to our intention

the intention of our soul

the desires of our heart