Tuesdays, March 4, 11, 18, 2025; 4:30-6pm
3 Weeks for $30 or 1 session for $15
The practice of “poem making” offers a means to express the metaphors and meaning of the joys and suffering we experience in ourselves and bear witness to in others. Poetry can be a salve for the heart and soul. It is a way of speaking what is true in our hearts and is often difficult to access without a creative spark. You do not have to be a "poet" or even a "writer" to allow words and feelings to pour through your pen.
Redwing Keyssar has been leading "poetic medicine" sessions through her work in Palliative Care at UCSF for the past 5 years. Her work has created an international community of people who, by listening to and writing poetry together, have healed wounds of grief and loss, helped "wounded healers," and provided resiliency to move forward on our life paths.
Writing poetry in community is a bit like attending a meditation retreat. The instruction for most beginners when learning to meditate is to simply bring oneself back to the breath, each time the mind wanders. In poem-making, the instruction is to bring oneself back to the heart and along with a deep breath, see if one can open a little bit wider. When we witness each other in this process, in a circle of open-heartedness, something magical happens!
We encourage registration for all three sessions to establish a strong and safe creative community. We are all poets!
About the Instructor: Judith Redwing Keyssar, RN has traversed an amazing 35+ year journey in the healing arts/healthcare. Redwing is an educator, end-of-life doula, author, poet, song-writer, ceremonialist, national presenter and frequent contributor to public issues about Palliative and End of Life Care. Redwing is currently the Director of Education at the MERI Center for Education in Palliative Care at UCSF/Mt. Zion. Her professional career includes being the Clinical Director at Zen Hospice Project and the Director of Palliative Care and Nursing at Jewish Family and Children’s Services from 2004-2018. She is a founder and adjunct faculty member of the California State University Shiley/Haynes Institute of Palliative Care, and has taught courses at OLLI at Sonoma State. Redwing is the author of an award-winning book, “Last Acts of Kindness; Lessons for the Living from the Bedsides of the Dying” and is the recipient of numerous awards in the field of Palliative Care. After studying with John Fox at the Institute for Poetic Medicine, her passion for using poetry as a healing modality has led to the development of a successful international program in Poetic Medicine, through her work at the UCSF MERI Center. Learn more about her here: https://redwingkeyssar.com/