Dr. Alla Reneé Bozarth, poet and prose writer, therapist and Episcopal priest, was among the first eleven women ordained as Episcopal priests in 1974 in Philadelphia. Dr. Bozarth is author of numerous books, including Life is Goodbye/Life is Hello: Grieving Well through All Kinds of Loss, A Journey through Grief {Hazelden); The Book of Bliss, Accidental Wisdom, This is My Body~ Praying for Earth, Prayers from the Heart, Moving to the Edge of the World, This Mortal Marriage~ Poems of Love, Lament and Praise {iUniverse); Soulfire~Love Poems in Black and Gold (distributed by the author at bearblessings.com); Womanpriest: A Personal Odyssey (Paulist Press 1978, revised edition Luramedia 1988, distributed by bearblessings.com); Stars in Your Bones: Emerging Signposts on Our Spiritual Journeys: poems by Alla Bozarth, color paintings by Julia Barkley and commentary by Terri Hawthorne [currently out of print]; and her scholarly book, The Word’s Body (University of Alabama Press 1979, University Press of America, Rowman and Littlefield 1997). She has a doctor of philosophy degree in performing arts from Northwestern University and a certificate in Gestalt psychotherapy from the Gestalt Training Center of San Diego. She has over forty years of professional experience as a soul caregiver– soul-mending as a psychotherapist and soul-tending as a spiritual director. She has served as pastoral counselor, consultant and mentor for individuals and groups.
Now retired from public ministry and travel for reasons of health, Dr. Bozarth’s home and sanctuary incorporate Wisdom House in Sandy, Oregon, where she devotes herself to writing as a way of harvesting the fruit of a life richly fertile from experience and formal learning, plumbing the depths of the human condition, exploring the breadth of Creation from Earth’s smallest creatures to the vast regions of the stars. Her poems have been put to music, painted, danced and performed by other artists and are loved and used throughout the world.
To use the links below, highlight the link, right click and choose “Open link.”
Please visit her Web blogs to see hundreds of soul-healing poems, prayers and beautiful images from Nature. Her main blog~ Welcoming Light in the Wilderness (see her related book, At the Foot of the Mountain~ Nature and the Art of Soul Healing):
http://allabozarthwordsandimages.blogspot.com/
A tribute to Alla’s beloved husband Phil Bozarth-Campbell~ All Souls’ Day~ This is My Beloved (see her related book, Womanpriest: A Personal Odyssey):
http://allabozarthwordsandimages.blogspot.com/p/all-souls-daythis-is-my-beloved.html
Please also visit Alla’s Web blog, Grief and Grieving Well Resources with poems, prayers, pictures and stories that offer comfort, courage and hope, featuring the “Love Mantra for Letting Go” and her new poem “Zigzagging the Grief Terrains” (see her books, Life is Goodbye/Life is Hello: Grieving Well through All Kinds of Loss, A Journey through Grief and This Mortal Marriage: Poems of Love, Lament and Praise):
http://griefandgrievingwellresources.blogspot.com/
Note her Vietnam docupoem with its own blog, with the powerful and compassionate poem, “The Veteran,” and a section on peace activists, especially women against war:
http://vietnamdocupoembyallabozarth.blogspot.com/
Tributes to the fifteen women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in the organization’s 111 year legacy, with a special poem honoring the environmental activist and champion of women’s rights, 2004 Peace Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai, tributes to Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Aung San Suu Kyi and other women of valor, the lyrical cantata poem, “Circle of Fire,” and the powerful call-to-heal-the-Earth poem, “The Black Madonna” (see her related books, This is My Body: Praying for Earth, Prayers from the Heart by Alla Reneé Bozarth and Stars in Your Bones: Emerging Signposts on Our Spiritual Journeys by Alla Bozarth, Julia Barkley and Terri Hawthorne):
http://womenpeacelaureateswangarimaathaipoem.blogspot.com/
Her complete bibliography with reviews, excerpts, poems and stories:
http://allabozarthbooks.blogspot.com/
A revised and updated Interview on Writing and Poetry that includes poems about her piano as healer, Susan B. Anthony and suffrage, war and peace and the plight of “The Veteran,” and the story of her collaboration with painter Julia Barkley and commentator Terri Hawthorne in creating their book, Stars in Your Bones~ Emerging Signposts on Our Spiritual Journeys (North Star Press of St. Cloud):
http://allabozarthinterview.blogspot.com/
A personal account of the historical Philadelphia Ordinations with stories, poems, photographs and tributes to Li Tim-Oi, the first woman ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Communion in 1944, followed by Joyce Bennett and Jane Hwang in 1971 in Hong Kong and Macao, and Jeannette Piccard who is on record as the first woman in space for piloting the hot air balloon she co-invented with her husband Jean into the stratosphere in 1934, and who forty years later was among the Philadelphia Eleven, the first women to become priests of the Episcopal Church. This account includes stories about personal heroes and poems for the first woman bishop in 1989, Barbara Harris, and presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in 2006 (read about prior history in her book, Womanpriest~A Personal Odyssey, revised edition 1988):
http://philadelphiaordinations.blogspot.com/
View her Google Profile page where you will find links to all of her blogs and 73 of her poems on PoemHunter near the bottom of the page:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/116777799798676100715/about