“This Healing Place” by Elizabeth Pringle
Instead of the usual Listener Poet format – listening to one person’s story and responding with a framing narrative and custom poem – I was invited to create a group poem for forty participants at the Arts in Healing luncheon, hosted by the Inova Health Foundation in partnership with the board. I had just thirty minutes to gather the voices and reflections of the assembled group.
The event opened on the balcony with a moment of shared resonance: singers from the Wolf Trap Opera Workshop lifted their voices in a powerful invocation, inviting us into connection. From there, we transitioned into the Life with Cancer meeting room, where the delicate sound of harp music welcomed us into a more intimate, reflective space.
I moved through the room, joining conversations already in progress and posing a few open-ended questions about the relationship between the arts and healing, the mission of Schar, and personal experiences of healing. One by one, people began offering words, phrases, memories – stories of how the arts were essential for health and healing. What began as dialogue soon deepened into a shared expression of meaning and resilience.
After a half an hour, I had gathered enough language, imagery, and insight to begin shaping the poem. I slipped away to a quiet room, where I sifted through the threads of what had been shared and wove them into a final poem. I read the poem aloud at the close of the luncheon – a reflection of the community’s stories and a testament to the healing power of art.
Elizabeth Pringle, Listener Poet
Listener Poet Session
June 2025
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This Healing Place
By Elizabeth Pringle, Listener Poet
Oh, it shines bright
And asks your heart
not your head
to be present
Welcomes you to
follow the awe
that place opened by art and song
the soaring on Summertime
floating in Venice
everything in its time
This 6th sense
That frees the mind
from the driving wheels of stress
Trust that knowing, and your feelings, to a letting go
Take a full breath
And let your fearful heart slow to calm
Here, people are flocking here
Walking into this place
to an embrace
That holds you so you can
stop your crazy mind
Releases you
to somewhere else
Inviting you to
put your eyes on something lovely
and let music travel from your ears
to your soul
in this place, healing space
Here, the east meets the west
Holistic, calming, moving on a different journey
Giving you permission to be free
ungraded, beyond judgment and clinical science
This heavenly gift that transcends and transforms
worldly cares into a song of healing
Art is the art of helping people
