poetry for a long time lets the person get intouch with their inner self.
sometimes letting them get off of medication. what comes out in their
poetry or action lets them drop some sort of blockage that has them in
the situation in the first place. some mental health people just need a
way to escape getting rid of the baggage that they carry. like i work
with the cronic homeless i feel if i can get them to write. maybe they
may be able to change there life around.
william foos
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Bircumshaw"
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Poetry, Performance, Therapy
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 07:11:44 -0000
We enjoyed a wonderful evening last night at the Phoenix Arts: the
event was a performance of
poems by 'survivors' of the local mental health system. It was hosted
by a local
comedian/performance poet Rob Gee and the poets read to a full house
of approx. 220 people. It
was a collective effort and the poets, many of whom had no previous
of stage or mic work, had
rehearsed assiduously for a month before, as well as spending all
afternoon acccustoming
themselves to a 'proper' theatre stage : the sight of those banked
seats, the lights, etc. As
well the group had produced a small colourful free booklet to
accompany the reading.
Now I wouldn't pretend that as poetry their work was of a high
standard, indeed, some poems were
touching more for the inadequacies of their language, but it was a
moving experience to see
people, some by 'normal' standards inarticulate, and people who
certainly count among life's
victims, having the confidence to stand before all those serried
ranks.
And they did so with such good humour.
One is familiar with the duality of poetry as art and poetry as
therapy - I don't feel there is
an argument in this matter - poetry can have a therapeutic effect
which is distinct from poetry
as an art and neither category invalidates the other. Art poetry of
course can be therapeutic
(or not!!) for its practitioners.
But we also have the duality (war at times) between poetry as
performance and poetry as
literature of the page and it was interesting to reflect that these
poets' performances were
just as good as you often get at performance events, if anything,
rather than raising questions
about literary poetry they raised queries at the claims of
performance poetry.
Best
Dave
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