In October, 2021 in the midst of the pandemic, they met at the edge of the Puget Sound drawn by an urgency within them to dive into themes of grief, gratitude and letting go. The bounty of music and poetry that poured through them was startling — more than 20 hours of collaborative creations were recorded! The first album born of that time was Feast of Losses, produced in 2022.

It has always been their intention to bring forth more of the gems that emerged from that creative convergence. Kindness is the first of a series of recordings that will be released over the next few years. Eventually Jami and Kim envision these single tracks creating an album tentatively entitled, This Mortal Time, featuring poems by Ellen Bass, Raymond Carver, Lisel Mueller, Annie Lightheart and Leonard Cohen, among others.

The root of the word kindness is kin, which means “related to, of the same nature, the same family” — a family that overflows our known circles of connection to touch others we’ve never met in cultures and countries beyond our edges.

At this time when voices of divisiveness are crowding the airwaves, may this offering be a sanctuary in which to slow down, realize how connected we are, and let the kindness that is alive at the very core of each of us germinate a contagion of healing for the world we share.

Poem by Naomi Shihab Nye
Music by Jami Sieber, "A Love Song for Humanity" from the album Timeless (Out Front Music, 2013)
Spoken Word by Kim Rosen

“Kindness” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye. Copyright © 1995. Used with the permission of Far Corner Books.

Cover Art: “Elegy” by Galen Garwood

For CD Liner Notes click here.

"Kindness" is available by digital download only

Jami Sieber (composer, cellist) and Kim Rosen (spoken word artist) have created a transformative convergence of music and poems that emerge from the heartbreak, gratitude and wake-up call of this moment in our lives and in the life of our world. The words of Langston Hughes, Stanley Kunitz, Marie Howe, Ellen Bass, Lucille Clifton, W.S. Merwin, Deena Metzger, Mark Nepo, Yehuda Amichai, and Mary Oliver, spoken by Kim, rise and fall in the evocative waves of Jami’s original music.

This unique creation, born of 21 years of collaboration between Jami and Kim, masterfully merges the power of evocative music to melt the heart with the medicine of poetry to open the mind. The result is a transformational listening experience like no other. The spoken voice moves through multiple layers of music to create an utterly immersive soundscape that is at once entrancing and awakening. Musical artists Hans Teuber, Nancy Rumbel, Sean Woolstenhulme, Greg Campbell weave their gifts into the soundscape of Jami Sieber’s cello in tracks to carry the listener from heartbreak to humor, from contemplation to irresistible, foot-stomping celebration.

Jami and Kim have been facilitating explorations of the difficult, necessary themes of aging, death and waking up for many years. This offering is a culmination of their shared love of the realness, rawness and intimacy that arises when we turn towards all levels of letting go.

“Feast of Losses” is an enduring ode to this moment in history, a seamless interplay of grief & joy, loss & gratitude, life & death. After hearing these themes held and offered so beautifully in the language of music and poetry, I discovered a new conversation within myself, a deeper capacity to hold these tensions constructively in my own heart and thus engage the world more fully. "
~a listener

In this moment in history, every one of us has been touched and changed by the personal, societal, and planetary changes we are undergoing. The magic of Jami's cello in resonance with the poems offer a portal of healing, inspiration and awakening.

“Saved by a Poem is, quite simply, transformational. A book that I now keep by my bedside. I have never before appreciated the power of poetry having been talked out of it in school. Kim Rosen redeemed poetry for me. And a whole new world has opened up.I love this book (and the CD that goes with it).” — Dr. Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of The Secret Pleasures of Menopause; The Wisdom of Menopause; Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom; and Mother-Daughter Wisdom

“Rarely in one’s life does a book come along that touches a tender place in the heart that knows truth. Saved by a Poem did that for me. It reawakened my love of poetry, filled my soul with the beauty of its words, and fueled my creative spirit with the vital nourishment that only poetry can offer. What a gift. Thank you, Kim Rosen.” — Cheryl Richardson, author of The Art of Extreme Self-Care

“Kim Rosen’s work is infinitely more important than it might appear. I have no doubt that our highly distressed society could be saved by poetry. Kim tells us here how a poem wakens and nourishes the soul and gives us the insight and sensitivity we need to live as creative individuals and as a peaceful society. She tells us how and what to read, not just appreciating some surface pleasantness but taking in the life-changing perspectives of real poetry. You will be educated and healed by this book.” — Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul and Writing in the Sand

“Intimate and wise, personal and encyclopedic, this book is about the fully embodied life that steps forward when great language is spoken aloud. Kim Rosen opens—and holds open—poetry's first door: the intimate and unobstructed voice. She shows how the practice of saying a poem can be limitless, revealing our fullest capacities of heart and mind, and returning those capacities to us in times when we have forgotten our way. This is a book both profoundly useful and usefully profound. It comes straight from the original fires in which poems are forged.” — Jane Hirshfield, author of Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

“If you love poetry, you will treasure this book. But even if you have never liked poetry much at all, I suspect this book might convert you.” — Sharon Salzberg, author of Loving Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

“Kim Rosen is bringing poetry back to where it belongs—into our bodies. To know a poem from the inside is to become a tabernacle for the sacred song of human life. We knew this long ago. Kim Rosen is helping us to remember. This art of knowing and holding poems within ourselves is crucial and life saving.” — Marie Howe, author of What the Living Do and The Kingdom of Ordinary Time

"[Saved by a Poem] is a call, a guide, an invitation to know poetry, to find poetry, to remember poetry. . . . For those who are afraid of poetry, this is a door opening; for those who love poetry, this is a sure deepening." — Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues and Insecure at Last

ALSO BY KIM