The Old Country
Family habits are hard to quit. Cycles move through us and are passed down; we all carry our own portion of psychological damage, the inherited limitations that shape our existence. Our individual share of what […]
writing as healing
Tracy Shawn, M.A. – Empowering Your Own Inner Hero
Author Christopher Vogler explains in his book, “The Writer’s Journey, Mythic Structure for Writers,” that when he went looking for a set of principles to explain the art of storytelling, he found something even more […]
Kathryn Stumpf – Closed for Business
Depression, for me, is like a vacancy. An absence of thought and emotion, of concern, ambition and desire. There’s a ‘Closed’ sign dangling in front of my eyes and no saying how long I’ll be […]
Rachel M. Walls – Poetic Healing
My first poem just sort of came to me. I had no idea, at the time, the impact it would have on my life. During a warm summer evening in Barcelona, I encountered a woman—the most […]
Marja Hagborg – Clowns and Magician: Poetry out of PTSD
“Clowns and Magicians” and “The Arsonist and The Jaguar” were written about a year apart. They are about my PTSD, which went on without correct diagnosis until, as a fluke, I met a trauma therapist […]
Phone Therapy and Other Poems
We’re delighted to feature in this issue four poems by the award-winning poet Ellen Bass. In the below bouquet of poems, Bass explores the experiences of witnessing and intervening in the lives of those around […]