David B. Axelrod with his daughter Aileen.  

Dr. Axelrod, can be found at http://www.poetrydoctor.org ,  and is director of Writers Unlimited Agency, Inc., at the website: http://www.writersunlimited.org . He has traveled the world as a poet as Fulbright’s first official poet-in-residence in China and also in Macedonia . He lived and performed in Sicily on grants from the Anitgruppo Siciliano. Poems from his fourteen books have been translated into fourteen languages. At home on Long Island , New York , he is the father of four  children, all poets.

          POETRY DOCTORÔ  So what's with that? I'm a lifelong poet. Having started writing poetry at the age of fourteen, I've put in forty-six years now. Perhaps the greatest thing I've gained from poetry is a path to wellness. Who would have thought that a Ph.D. in poetry would work as well or better than an M.D.?

As surely as there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in my philosophy, I've met so many amazing people through my poetry. If one is receptive, such encounters can redirect one's life. My own greatest moments of happiness and wellness have come in other lands. As a visiting poet in Sicily , I sat on a mountainside veranda overlooking the Ionian Sea , suffused by the goodness and warmth of life. I participated in a Chi Gong healing conference in Sichuan , People’s Republic of China , and experienced the same energy I often feel when I read or write poetry. It flowed through me and the person I was helping heal, who then professed to be well!

Who can explain these little miracles which make life special? Poets can. I delight in trying. Hence, Poetry Doctor, which the little devil in me wants to own as property (trade marked). But let the ego go (doesn’t that look like poetry? “ego go ego-a-go-go!” That’s got rhythm!) Sure, I love hugs, but if you can read into this web page, gifted to me by some Rogue Scholars, perhaps you can love your art and your life a bit more, as I do.

I have studied the literature, the art of poetry, even the business of writing, and the best thing I can suggest to you is to accept the life of a poet with all its perks and yes, even with the pain. A poet, just about by definition, must feel some pain. It’s comes with being observant of the human condition. In fact, studies (for example: http://www.molbio.princeton.edu/courses/mb427/2000/projects/0002/index3.html) often note that poets are far more frequently depressed than any other writers and certainly members of the general public. Could those same people who are gifted with keen powers of observation, who are more inclined to deeper insights, be condemned to suffer because of those very talents? An old philosopher and friend of mine often says, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”

Poets, not just attentive, but hyper-attentive to their world, could be duly upset by the injustices, the inequities, the imbalances witnessed every day. My prescription for the poet, however, is to be as expansive as Walt Whitman: “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudeds.)” Controversial as he was in his time, he and all poets have every reason to live long and prosper.

Yes, “martyr” contains “art” but one need not sacrifice oneself to accomplish great things in poetry. The mere observation, the reflection of life back to those who may have missed some cogent detail; that should be enough to prevent any poet from being overwhelmed by what is observed. Mirrors still make magic. If poets hold a mirror to the world, that is more than enough to justify their life and poetry.

Indeed, it can be better than that. Poets can, more often, fine tune the lens through which we see. That is where the real art, and even the healing comes into play. Poets have the ability to make even the ordinary seem extraordinary. Just as metaphor is a transformation accomplished in words, poetry transforms what it observes; it makes the connections that others, “non-poets,” may fail to see. My own poetry, in placing a frame around even a dark moment redirects the actual, the factual, back to others as art.

While journalists are trained to be observers through whom an undistorted message passes, the poet is that wonderful twister, distorter, filter of life. It is the poet’s ability to not just channel energy but alter and enhance it that constitutes an individual style and the power of the poetry. There is an archetype in literature of an encounter with a mysterious stranger who redirects our life. The best of poetry and poets has that effect.

       Granted, I am asking a lot. Much of poetry, having been written under the impression that another day requires another poem, is merely a language exercise, a practice for the real thing, but with the machine thus kept well oiled and ready, poets are themselves ready and able to render real art from their observation of reality. That’s what has happened, happily and healthily, for me in my many years pursuing the muse.

          Occasionally, people in my own life, each with an agenda of his or her own, have uttered what could have been damaging remarks. There was the woman, for instance, who told me “All your poetry comes from negativity.” At first I was wounded by her pronouncement, as much as anything because it was, if not categorically, at least often true. Much of my poetry has come from negativity. Who hasn’t suffered? Who hasn’t suffered when observing the suffering of others? Yet, as surely as “my enemy is my teacher,” I came to accept her comment as another kind of compliment.

Imagine! I had turned negativity into poetry! Wow! I could have turned it into “outrage,” as my aging philosopher friend has done, but he’s not happy. I could have turned negativity into bullets and become a killer. Instead, I had made poetry. A wonderful poet, X. J. Kennedy, once said I had “the power to smash complacency,” and with that, he included a poem of mine in his widely-used anthology Introduction to Poetry. The poem, “Once in a While a Protest Poem,” (reproduced below) chastised those who ignored the starvation and suffering of others. It described a starving mother and infant in Africa . The poem was also voted the most-used poem in the book in a survey done by the publisher.

What comes from such a transformation? Well, as a little kid (as I am, still, in my heart) who shouted “Mommy, watch me!” I got the attention I sought. However, would it be wrong to think some student assigned to read poetry from a very heavy literature anthology, would actually stop for a moment to reflect on how the suffering of others simply continues.

But perhaps those same readers, if only for a moment, do appreciate the fact that they aren’t starving? Perhaps a tiny cry does go up inside that they should do more to stop the suffering. Any effect is, as the theme of the poem goes, better than affect. Poetry may not heal the world, it may be marvelously innocuous, but even that is so far superior to the poisons often poured into us.

There is a Hebrew notion (not to mention a magazine) of “tikun”—that which can heal the world. The Chinese express energy as “chi.” The religious generally refer the “spirit.” What more amazing grace can one receive than poetry itself, descended from a tradition of prayer? No wonder I can finish my thoughts feeling happy. If I were to recommend a path, a profession, even just a hobby, it would have to be poetry. Can’t make a living at it but you sure can have fun! In the process, you could heal the world!

For more on “The Healing Power of Writing,” go to http://www.writersunlimited.org/TIPhealing.htm

To see a list of or purchase books by David B. Axelrod go to

http://www.writersunlimited.org/LIPS.htm  :

For a complete CV for Dr. Axelrod

http://www.writersunlimited.org/CV.htm 

Dr. Axelrod is offering a creative writing course on line for three college credits through SUNY Suffolk College. For more information email him: axelrod@sunysuffolk.edu