Suggests that the poet and the psychotherapist begin with different motivations and address quite different tasks. Discusses the paradox embodied in poetry therapy. (SR)

Provides a psychohistorical perspective on the Russian poet, Marina Tsvetayeva, who committed suicide in 1941. Offers a critical analysis of Boris Pasternak's (1983) "I Remember: Sketch for an Autobiography" to yield several points to consider in interpreting motives for suicides. (SR)

Discusses the work of the physician and the poet, and the features they share. Notes that both require the application of technique and art; aim for a state of wholeness; and depend on a state of awareness and attention to the present moment. (SR)

Discusses what a poet can offer severely disturbed psychiatric patients and how that is distinct from what a clinician offers. (SR)

Discusses some theoretical considerations essential to understanding poetry's power to assist in healing mental, moral, or spiritual anguish. Presents two fundamental and contrasting notions of what a poet does, how a poem comes to be, what place a poet and poetry have in society, and what criteria determine whether a poem is art, or not. (RS)

Suggest that, emerging from a disturbance of consciousness and/or awakening of the unconscious, haiku does not lead to something, haiku is not about anything; it is a complete world, an end in itself; celebrating the present moment as a transition between psychological inattentiveness and enlightenment. (RS)

Investigates how Nezahualcoyotl, a fifteenth-century Aztec poet, used writing as a healing force in his later adult years. Concludes that the poetry served as a therapeutic resource for him to resolve a crisis of despair. (RS)

Discusses the role of poetry writing in prisons. Provides examples of poetry written by inmates from several institutions during the author's experiences as National Education Association's Writer-in-the-Prisons. (SR)