Poetry Rx: Welcome // Introduction

Welcome to my new web-based initiative about poetry and healing. Many people find poetry delightful, interesting and thought-provoking — and I hope the poems I include will evoke all of those responses – but in this venture I plan to go further. In my personal and professional experience, poetry also has the to comfort, soothe, inspire and, yes, even heal. In addition, poetry can act as a lens through we can gaze into the parallel processes of mind and brain and experience treasures that might otherwise be entirely hidden.

Dr. Rosenthal invites you to join him in this 1 minute welcome video

I understand that some may find the idea of poetry as therapy fanciful. That was certainly how many people felt when I first began to study seasonal affective disorder (SAD) over 35 years ago and suggested that those affected by SAD might benefit from therapy with bright light. One colleague whom I met at a professional event shortly after the publication of our first SAD article called me aside with a big grin and said, “Come, Norman, let’s stand under the light, I’m feeling a little depressed.” Nowadays such a remark might be taken seriously. But then it was said in high jest to signal the absurdity of the idea. So perhaps, it is fitting that my first essay on the healing powers of poetry should relate to a condition and treatment that were once thought fanciful, but are now fully accepted.

If you would like to read my most recent Poetry Rx poems, and/or find out more about poems that heal please subscribe to Poetry Rx updates via the form below.

Wishing you healing and transformation,

Norman

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