Creeley as Therapy

He ran an ad in the health section
of the local weekly
“Cure Mental Crises with Creeley.”

And you know 12 people
paid $175 for an 8-week workshop!

Enough to put in a new shower stall!

He sat them at ease
in a circle of chairs
each of them holding
The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley 1975-2005
and then they opened it up at random
read aloud

& discussed
the curative feel
of the words

as they would relate
to the reader’s particular crisis.

It worked!
Smiles cracked the circle
& sometimes tears!

They begged him to hold another one
especially as the calendar
tugged toward
blue Christmas