The Art of Healing

Poetry. Collaboration. THE ART OF HEALING documents in poetry the experience of Charles' bout with cancer. Poets Charles Entrekin and Gail Rudd Entrekin—husband and wife, survivor and caregiver, insider and witness—beautifully, vulnerably and sometimes heartbreakingly share their finely crafted poems in this brilliant volume. In this collection, both poets were moved to make sense of what was happening in their lives through the writing of poems. Unaware of each others content, they continued writing throughout the treatment. Later, upon reflection, they realized that they had been coming to grips with the same events through poems that seemed to complement each other. These poems reflect those two journeys, from diagnosis to treatment to healing, and the coming to terms with what remains, what it means to be alive and part of a larger web of being. This is a book for anyone who has come to know the meaning of suffering and healing.

Charles Entrekin
Author of five books of poetry and a novel, Red Mountain:Birmingham, Alabama, 1965 (El Leon Literary Arts, 2008), Charles Entrekin holds an MFA in Creative Writing and founded the Creative Writing department at John F. Kennedy University and the Berkeley Poets Workshop & Press.  Currently he is editor of the e-zine Sisyphus, a magazine of literature, philosophy and culture, and managing editor of Hip Pocket Press (hippocketpress.com). 
 
Gail Rudd Entrekin
Editor of the online environmental literary journal Canary (hippocketpress.org/canary)and Poetry Editor of Hip Pocket Press, Gail taught English Literature and Creative Writing for 25 years.  She has published four books of poetry, the most recent Rearrangement of the Invisible (Poetic Matrix Press 2012).  Her poems have been widely published in anthologies and journals and were finalists for the Pablo Neruda Prize from Nimrod in 2011.