The Good Listening Project was honored to be part of the September Women in Medicine Conference at Hofstra University in NYC. Certified Listener Poet Cohort 7 alum Gray Davidson Carroll was on-site holding Listener Poet sessions with attendees. Here is their reflection:
Photo by Kumba Jagne
My experience at SWIMC has stayed present with me every day for the past month. Present in the way I’ve watched light pour through my window each morning, present in the child I saw laughing on the subway on my way home this evening to where I now sit, at my desk, writing these words.
The stories of these eight poemees reverberating out, into my experience of the world. Tears (we went through a whole box of tissues), laughter and hugs were shared in every one of our sessions and again and again, I was struck, though a better word for it is embraced by the vulnerability that each poemee brought with them into the room and our session.
I left that day so filled with stories that I began writing immediately on the commute home and continued that coherence of fragments across journals, my Notes app, shopping receipts, and once, when I was without any other surface to write on, the inside, the bottom half of my left thigh throughout the following week. And as an aside, I think one of them might be my favorite poem I’ve ever written for TGLP.
– Gray Davidson Carroll, October 2025
Photo by Kumba Jagne
Photo by Kumba Jagne