Poet and educator Ravenna Raven – one of the first Listener Poets with The Good Listening Project, lead instructor for the Certified Listener Poet course, and your heartfelt newsletter editor – was recently featured in For the Soul: A Group Exhibition in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. Curated by Geheim Gallery in partnership with Lion and Lamb Fine Art, the exhibition brought together 20 artists from across the country to explore a resonant question: What does the soul of your work look like?
Open throughout July 2025 and timed with the Seattle Art Fair, For the Soul invited artists to reflect on the essence of their creative practice. The show created space for close attention and meaningful engagement, encouraging viewers to connect deeply with each piece.
Ravenna’s contribution included three typewritten poems – “Sitting With Grief,” “In the Cath Lab,” and “Great Eastern Brood” – each composed on a 1956 Smith Corona Skyriter and printed on Genesis birch paper. These works draw from her practice as a Listener Poet with The Good Listening Project, where she uses poetry as a healing dialogue rooted in empathy, storytelling, and restorative listening.
Ravenna’s Artist Statement:
As a Listener Poet for healthcare communities through The Good Listening Project, I’ve been able to be with people in the throes of, and long after, some of the most defining experiences of their lives as they navigate the complexities of medical care for themselves or their loved ones. “Sitting With Grief” and “In the Cath Lab” are poems from this project, based on conversations I had with each person, and gifted to them. This practice of deep listening and compassionate presence places me in direct connection with the soul whenever I sit to talk with people to compose a poem for them inspired by their stories of grief, loss, hope, and healing.
Early childhood experiences with first responders, surgeons, nurses, and hospice care propelled me towards writing as a practice for healing and making meaningful connections with others. “Great Eastern Brood” was one of the first poems I wrote about my family’s grief after my father, a much beloved Emergency Medical Technician in our rural community, passed from pancreatic cancer. Witnessing my mother’s unending care for him, and for myself and my brother, during that time shaped my perspective about the resilience of the human spirit, and the sacred gift of accompanying someone through their end of life experience.