Finding What You Didn't Lose and Poetic Medicine

Dr. John Fox is a leader in the field of poetry therapy and is president and CEO of the Board of the Institute for Poetic Medicine. He has authored two books on poetry therapy: Finding What You Didn't Lose and Poetic Medicine. In these books, Dr. Fox shares from his own experience as both a person in need of healing and as a poet who has used his writing to help heal others. He leads workshops on poetic medicine and his books are filled with the exercises he uses in the workshop. The reader is invited to write their own poetry and not just read the examples of past workshop participants, some as young as grade school. There are also marginal quotes that could easily be used as launching pads for journaling or poetry.

Finding What You Didn't Lose is an excellent resource for the person who is not comfortable with writing, who isn't already in the habit of putting their experiences into words, especially into verse. The exercises Fox uses are simple and build upon one another, gently leading the reader/writer through various experiences. Technique-like using metaphor, alliteration, line breaks, etc.-is not the emphasis, although they are mentioned and practiced throughout. Rather, the focus of the text is on simply getting the words, the emotions, the memories, on the page in whatever manner feels most honest.

Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making is the perfect complement to Fox's other text as it takes the same ideas but goes further along the path, focusing more on digging into the past to find inspiration for more poems. The idea is to not avoid pain so much as to bring it out into the light and find healing through giving the past experiences meaning through words. Once again, Fox shares examples from participants in his workshop before inviting the reader, through well defined exercises, to write their own poetry.