Soul Making in the Valley of the Shadow: by the Deep River Poets

The Deep River Poets offer this collection of our poems to the Jung Institute of San Francisco, in celebration of its passage from a beloved old home to a transformative new home, and as an expression of deep gratitude to Extended Education, which has given Deep River support, visibility, and a place to gather. Soul Making, which began in the library of the Gough Street building, was nurtured by Extended Education, has been influenced by the spirit of our times as well as the spirit of the depths, and is a manifestation of the essential role the creative arts play in the Jungian approach to healing the individual as well as the culture. Since the trauma of the 2016 election and the catastrophic times that have followed, Deep River has become a sacred river we wash ourselves in, as the Hindus do in Ganga Ma-Mother Ganges-to cleanse our souls and heal our broken hearts. We gather at the river to follow the flow of our poems; they take us to surprising places, show us the unexpected-the tree of life around a bend in the river, its roots deep in the earth.

Naomi Ruth Lowinsky lives at the confluence of the River Psyche and the Deep River of Poetry. She's a Jungian Analyst, and a widely published poet, winner of the Obama Millennial Award and the Blue Light Poetry Prize. Her fifth poetry collection, Death and His Lorca, is forthcoming from Blue Light Press. Lowinsky has brought those two rivers together in Deep River-a poetry writing circle she's been leading in the library of the San Francisco Jung Institute for 15 years. The group began as a way of working with writing as a spiritual practice. That expanded to writing under the influence of great poets. And before she could say "Open Sesame!" those second Saturday afternoon meetings reverberated with passionate, soulful poems written by the participants. Since the shock of the 2016 election the group's writings have deepened in awareness of shadow, terror, and grief. Naomi is grateful for Deep River, her writing and support group in these awful times. She blogs about poetry and life at www.sisterfrombelow.com.

Raluca Ioanid was born in communist Romania and raised in capitalist New York City. By day she is a UCSF trained Family Nurse Practitioner working at a community health center. By night she is a writer of stories and poems. Her work has been published in several anthologies and literary journals. She feels immensely grateful to share a place among the Deep River writers, guided by Naomi on a powerful journey into the heart of poetry. She is nourished and healed by the words of the poets they have studied, most notably: James Baldwin, Sandra Cisneros, Lucille Clifton and Galway Kinnell. Through them and the work of her Deep River fellows, Raluca has found strength and light for these dark times.

Clare Cooper Marcus retired as a professor in the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley and was looking for a way to deepen her consciousness, too long mired in the publish-or-perish demands of academia. She found what she was looking for among fellow Deep River poets. During World War Two as a child she was evacuated to the English countryside and there found solace in nature. It is not surprising she was drawn to the work of poets of nature and the environment-Gary Snyder, W.S. Merwin-and that she also wrote poems related to times of war. Deep River introduced her to poets of color, such as Gwendolyn Brooks; to others she knew little about such as Frank O'Hara; to those who wrote of poetry's craft such as Annie Finch. With Naomi Lowinsky's provocative prompts she was challenged to delve into her heart, relive painful memories, recognize buried connections. Poetry became her salvation.