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My guest this week on Poetry from Daily Life is Dottie Joslyn, who lives in Springfield, Missouri. She has been writing most of her life in some form, but poetry “landed in me” fairly early, and I’ve been writing it ever since.” Dottie has a published book, "Just Show Up," and she’s collecting some of her newer poetry for a second book, which she hopes to publish in the next couple of years. She is a Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator in the field of Poetry Therapy and has worked with people with mental illnesses, as well as other community groups. ~ David L. Harrison
I know that because I’ve used poetry in groups of mentally ill people and watched them expand past their illnesses and blossom. Reading, discussing, and writing poetry helps people find where they are in life and in the world. It’s one step outside the self yet still expresses the self’s pain, joy, disappointments, and everything else right where they are. There’s something about poetry that allows people to pretend that they are “just writing a poem,” but reveals personal truths that tell a part of their own stories.
Metaphors and similes sit in for what’s really going on in the lives people are living. And when those lives are fraught with depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses, reading and using those devices release the emotion onto the page. People who can’t talk about their issues can sometimes write about them in poetry.
When I first became certified as an Applied Poetry Facilitator (CAPF) through the International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy (IFBPT), I began working with people with mental illnesses at the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Southwest Missouri (NAMI) in their drop-in center, called the Hope Center. I was completely certain of poetry’s ability to heal but was nervous at that first session. What if it didn’t work? What if they hated the poetry I was using? What if they didn’t participate? I used Billy Collins’ poem, “Introduction to Poetry,” in that first session that ends:
“... all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.”
Which is not what poetry therapy is about. It’s about interpreting poetry in the context of each person’s life experience, how it speaks to him/her, not necessarily what the poet meant. Even a poem that we don’t like can spur discussion and writing about our reasons for the dislike. You don’t have to like a poem for it to make you think and respond.
I didn’t have to worry about participation. The people there were hungry to express themselves in discussions about the poems, but were the most receptive to sharing. At that first meeting, I used the protocol I had learned through vigorous study over several years, and at the end asked if anyone wanted to share. It was never mandatory, I told them, but hands shot up all around the table. I knew then that I was in the right place doing the right thing. Here is the poem that came from that experience.
They are smiling,
their hands waving in the air,
eager to share,
eager to be heard.
Voices soft at first,
hesitant,
echo in the quiet room,
then grow stronger,
surer.
Nods.
A hand reaches out,
a firm clasp for a moment.
A sigh of relief,
then voices raised in solidarity.
Poetry opened the door.
They walked through it.
Dottie Joslyn has had poems published in several journals and anthologies including: "American Tanka," "Buffalo Bones," "Poetry from the Trail Ridge Writers," "Beginning Again: Creative Responses to Poetry of Presence," "The Bards of Moon City: An Anthology of Poetry, Volumes One and Two," "Paddle Shots," "Along the Shore: Strategies for Living with Grief," and "Gyroscope Review." Her website is joslynpoems.com. Anyone interested in learning more about poetry therapy can get information at www.IFBPT.org.
