Poetic Keys Open Door Upon Door at the End of Life
My morning breakout session has a long title: “Accessing Transpersonal Dimensions of Healing Through Writing and Poetry.” Whew! I’m out of breath just saying it.
It’s short and sweet, only an hour and 15 minutes including questions.
What are the doors that poetry can open at the end of life?
–dying hospice patients can write the myth of their lives or their core lessons and values. Poetry gives us the esssence. We can write about what we love and what we raged at.
–Clinicians can write to take care of the profound emotions they come in contact with and feel as they care for dying patients.
–Families can write about what they feel and who they are in the presence of grief.
–Caretakers can use metaphor as a poetic key to listening to patients suffering from dimentia and find a way to enter their world.
–Poetry and writing is a power-tool for making meaning:
What is the value of life? Life fading?
What value do we find in the dying process?
Who are we becoming?
You are such a versatile and gifted writer, Janet! The end of life spirituality conference in Boulder sounds wonderful. As a Clinical Social
Worker, I learned so much from people in stages of their lives where they
aassumed they were dying (unlike the rest of us who assume we aren’t…just yet). Anyway, I can see so many threads of grace within your writing and your life. It’s a pleasure to know you. Hi to your dad for me!
Jane