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Jean Bass, CPT WELCOME
"Inside this pencil crouch words Welcome to the poetry practice. "Writing Your Way to Hope and Healing" can be read in many ways. At first glance, it means that through writing, you will be on the road to hope and healing. A second look opens it up even further, with the emphasis on the words: "Writing YOUR way." What does it mean to write YOUR way? Who are you? Who do you dream of becoming? What does your deepest self tell you? Many people who pursue the dream of being a published writer (which is not our goal here, although that may be your dream as well) are told: "Write what you know." Essentially in that context, it means to stick to the things you know best, and describe them with all the detail that knowing brings. Here, at the poetry practice, writing YOUR way means you will be writing your way to hope and healing, all in your own unique voice, the one that no one else on this earth has but you. This is YOUR place, and this is YOUR way, and this is YOUR path. Think of it as the "write-way" to wellness. This is all done through POETRY THERAPY. (Please read the section: "What is poetry therapy?") You will discover how your life can be transformed, one word at a time. How words become wishes. This is "word-work", soul and spirit work, and it works wonders. There has been a great deal of clinical research to support how writing can help your physical, emotional and mental health. (For a fabulous book on the subject, see James Pennebaker's, "Opening Up," published in 1990 by The Guilford Press. Additionally, "The Journal of Poetry Therapy: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research and Education," published by Brunner-Routledge, is quarterly journal filled with a wealth of articles on this subject.) But, poetry therapy is essentially experiential. While the studies confirm its healing abilities, you will experience it first hand as you begin to read, write and connect to the world, and yourself, in a whole new way. Perhaps you find yourself resistant when you hear the word "Poetry." Maybe you had a bad experience with poetry in school, as many of us did. It's possible that you have convinced yourself that poetry is too difficult to understand. There is a film of the poet, writer and teacher, Kenneth Koch, working with a group of fifth graders in which one of his students is having some difficulty with a poem. Koch tells him, "You don't have to understand it to like it. I like you, and I don't understand you!" That statement really opened my eyes. Sometimes it may be the rhythm of the poem you can relate to - or one line that sticks out and moves something in you - and gradually, by beginning there, you may discover what I call, the way in. "The way in" can be discovered through one line you like. It can also be found by reading a poem aloud. Here's a poem I wrote after reading what I thought was a poem I could not at first understand:
THE WAY IN Seemingly impenetrable poem... all I had to do was read you aloud to unlock your voice- passionate and painting words I could not, or so I thought, understand, printed on the page. Now you're alive with my own inflections, emphasis, cadence. Your words in my mouth - become mine, right to the brain. We are one, in understanding as we swing in this dazed rhythm, I exalting in you, you, residing in me. Poems heaven, voice expressed, intimidation erased. I grasp the poem, stick my tongue out to catch its water quenching me. Take a look at the Workshop Descriptions to see what the possibilities are. Individual and couples sessions are available. You too can discover the quenching waters of poetry. As the poet, Hafiz, wrote, "A poet is someone Come on into the poetry practice. Back to top |
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