This page was last updated on: October 22, 2009


.
In My Dream

Patience covers the earth
like a down blanket
that warms
fingers
in Afghanistan,
Israel,
Uzbekistan, Georgia,
the West Bank,
Gaza,
India, Africa,
Bosnia,
Iraq,
the United States.

In My Dream

Humility is a mansion
whose roof oversees
soldiers shedding guns
and whose rooms
house world leaders
shaking hands.

In My Dream

Gentleness is no coward.
Love is borderless.
Beams of light have not replaced the two towers.
Danny Pearl is alive.

In My Dream

Poetry raises children
who know peace.
         - Esther Altshul Helfgott


home
Dear Pat

Stop worrying about my instructions.
They're not that difficult.
First, you crouch down. Squat.
Take a deep breath.
Suck in, hold it, and slowly let go.
Dream of completion and sky.
Then, push.

Don't think about blacking out.
You won't.  And if you did, so what.
Nine women will be with you.

The men will be in another room.
The women will sing.
They will hum.
They will rub your back.
And chant.

Take a deep breath, Pat.
Suck in, hold it, and slowly let go.
Dream of completion and sky.
Then, push.
Push.
             -Esther Altshul Helfgott

   

       Writing fosters self-understanding & personal
       growth. It helps us learn & understand. 
       Writing helps us to remember ourselves in the past.
                        It helps us to know.
          Esther's
  Writing works
                          for memory, healing & art's sake
Esther Altshul Helfgott, Ph.D.

Websites
It's About Time Writers Reading Series

Dialogue through Poetry
    
September 11, 2001:  a journal of the writer's role in society

The Edith Buxbaum Journal

Analysands Speak: an anthology of voices from the client's perspective

Blog:  Seattle P.I.
Witnessing Alzheimer's:  A Caregiver's View.

Work Samples
& Publication History

Poems
most recent
Fragments from an Alzheimer's Journey

older
Driving Home from Mother's House
Mouth
Eight Years Old
My Father's Tzimmes
At Sixteen
The Daughter of Dementia
From a boy on a dreambed

Biography

Fritz Schmidl (1897-1969)  

Irena Klepfisz, Loss and the Poetry of Exile

Edith Buxbaum, Ph.D.  (1902-1982)

Questioning An Icon:
Edith Buxbaum and the Seattle Psychoanalytic Institute, 1947-1982

Auto/Biography

Edith Buxbaum, Latency and Me: Between the Oedipus Complex
and Adolescence: The Quiet Time -  Letter to Edith"  

Diaries

Psychoanalysis: The Magic & the Lie - Diary of a Five Day A Week Analysis

Life Story

Censorship & the Development of A Writing Self

Red-Diaper Baby

Book Reviews

Inside the Halo & Beyond:The Anatomy of a Recovery by Maxine Kumin

Don't Turn Away: Poems About Breast Cancer by Patricia Wellingham-Jones

Fiset's Now the Day is Over

Eating Pavlova by D.M.Thomas 

The Psychiatrist and the Poet

Bubbe Meinse

A Purim Phantasmagoria

Teaching

A Sampling of ClassesTaught

Writers' Comments

NW Writers Interview

Photo Album

Altshul/Helfgott Picture Gallery

Picture Gallery 2

Anna Helfgott's Page






















POEMING
the SILENCE
WOMEN'S
WRITING
CIRCLE


Tuesday
night
at
Esther's                   
    



Upcoming Readings

Oct. 15, 2009, Thurs., Richard 
Hugo House, 7:30 - 9 pm, with Switched-on-Gutenberg
contributors                                                          
July 25, 2009  Fremont library,
4 p.m., with DRASH contributors

May 31, 2009 Ravenna Third
Place Books, Seattle, 3 pm, with the DRASH contributors

May 3, 2009 Frye Art Museum,
2 pm, with Beyond Forgetting contributors

March 1, 2009  Hugo House,
7 pm Red Sky Memorial for
Irene Drennan