Three Poet/Clinicians Discuss the Relationship Between Poetry and Clinical Care

Kevin Dwyer | Posted on October 16, 2023 |

Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Michele Bombardier is once again thinking outside the poetry box, offering up a unique program that combines poetry and clinic care.

The free event, entitled “Poetry, Compassion, and Healing: Three Poet/Clinicians Discuss the Relationship Between Poetry and Clinical Care,” will be held Sunday, October 22, from 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. at the Bainbridge Public Library, 1270 Madison Ave N.

The line-up of presenters includes: Jed Myers, a psychiatrist with a therapy practice and Clinical Professor at the University of Washington. His third poetry collection, Learning to Hold, is forthcoming from Wandering Aengus Press. His poems have appeared in Rattle, The Poetry Review, RHINO, The Greensboro Review, and elsewhere. Myers lives in Seattle, where he’s Editor of Bracken.

Risa Denenberg lives in Sequim where she works as a nurse practitioner. She is a co-founder of Headmistress Press; curator at The Poetry Café Online; and Reviews Editor for River Mouth Review. She has published eight poetry collections, most recently, Rain/Dweller (MoonPath Press, 2023) and is working on a memoir-in-progress: Mother, Interrupted.

Michele Bombardier is the author of “What We Do,” a Washington Book Award finalist. She worked as a speech-language pathologist in hospitals and her own clinic for thirty years before returning to graduate school and earning her Master of Fine Arts in poetry. She has been published in over 100 literary journals and anthologies, including JAMA, Parabola, Crab Creek Review, and others. Michele is a Hedgebrook fellow, the founder of Fishplate Poetry, and the inaugural poet laureate of Bainbridge Island.

She has been the island’s first-ever Poet Laureate for just over a year. After her confirmation from Arts & Humanities Bainbridge and the City of Bainbridge Island, she said, in part, “I look forward to organizing events such as workshops and open mics as well as bringing regional and national poets to Bainbridge for readings. We have such a vibrant arts community here and I’m glad that poetry is welcome at the table. My hope is that this position will provide opportunities for everyone in our community to experience poetry in new ways.”

If you’d like to learn more about Michele and the AHB Poet Laureate, visit our previous article here: Bainbridge Island Appoints Inaugural POET LAUREATE | THE ISLAND WANDERER