Can Poetry Heal?

Oct 1, 2023 - Hear 3 published poets read from their recent collections which emerged as each persevered through a sudden devastating health crisis. You’ll find an emotional breadth of losses and lessons mined in their resilient journeys to recovery.
Linda Lamenza is a poet and literacy specialist in Massachusetts. Her chapbook, Left-Handed Poetry, was a finalist for Hunger Mountain’s May Day Mountain Chapbook Series and is forthcoming with Finishing Line Press. The poems were written during rehabilitation from severe injuries incurred as a pedestrian hit by an SUV. Her work has appeared in Green Ink Poetry, Lily Poetry Review, San Pedro River Review, The Comstock Review, Nixes Mate, and elsewhere.
Margot Wizansky’s chapbook memoir of her near-death experience, Wild for Life, was published by Lily Poetry Review in 2021. Her book of poems The Yellow Sweater will come out in 2023. Her works have appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Missouri Review, Bellevue Literary Review, and many others. She edited What the Poem Knows, A Tribute to Barbara Helfgott Hyett. She has been awarded residencies at Writers@Work, Salt Lake City, and Carlow University, Ireland. She’s retired from a career developing housing for adults with disabilities.
Dianne Silvestri is a physician and poet. Her book But I Still Have My Fingerprints, recently published by CavanKerry Press, describes her confrontation with the diagnosis of acute leukemia and her journey through bone marrow stem cell transplantation and complications, ultimately to claim survivorship. Her work has appeared widely, including JAMA, The Healing Muse, American Journal of Nursing, Journal of Radiology Nursing, Naugatuck River Review, Barrow Street, and Main Street Rag.