Annamae Sax in Tufts Poetry Blog:
I’ve often considered poetry as a core piece of therapy for myself. Ever since I was a child, it’s been my biggest way of understanding the world and my own experiences. I see my life through the lens of a poem, and it helps me process and heal whatever I may be going through. I’ve been writing poetry since I was six, and I have always credited it for getting me through traumatic experiences and helping me celebrate the beautiful ones.
The more I grew as a poet, I found that so many others felt the same way. It seemed like such a vast amount of people found solace in poetry, used it as a form of therapy, as well. I’ve quoted Audre Lorde’s “Poetry is Not a Luxury” more times than I can count. I wondered what work or research had been done about this, seeing as it’s touched so many. Nicole Bouchard wrote on the healing powers of poetry, saying, “Poetry can take the most extreme emotions and bottle them like tinctures that can be used to heal the reader; it is expression- giving a voice to that which we need as human beings to express, that gives poetry its strong influence.” She describes the Pongo Teen Writing Project, which focuses on “Reaching out to children and young adults in juvenile detention centers, homeless shelters, psychiatric hospitals, and other organizations… founder Richard Gold and his team of Pongo volunteers use a carefully constructed model to encourage written expression that will target those areas which are most affecting the youths’ circumstances (early childhood trauma, such as abuse, rape, addiction, death and violence).”
More here.
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