We turn to poetry in times of joy, peace, fear, hurt…
So why wouldn’t we turn to poetry as self-therapy when we’re searching for healing?
Poetry has always been a way of processing hardships and challenges. My most difficult times led me to pick up my pen and write. With that came new insights, conclusions and most importantly, relief. Rarely did I think my time with my journal and pen would end in the creation of work I loved but it nearly always did. I found solace and stillness after the purging. Editing words to find exact expressions for what I felt allowed me to name what was once unknown within. Dictating how I wanted these stories of my life to be remembered helped me tiptoe my way back into my power. Re-reading the language I used to narrate my experiences helped me ask the hard questions.
Why did I feel this way?
What was my role in the manifestation of this experience?
How can I grant myself and these memories more grace?
Are these beliefs still true?
Surrendering to the outpour of raw emotion has taught me countless lessons. The largest one of all is that I am safe to land somewhere new. I can express what once was and let it go. I’m allowed to have relief and welcome in new joy.
It becomes easy to take it on as our entire reality when we’re dealt a tricky hand. Feeling stuck in relationships, careers, or in places is easy because we can pretend we don’t have control over our circumstances. The truth is we have just as much power in life as we do behind our pens. We can make choices that lead us closer to the reality we wish to see the same way we carefully construct our poetic voices.
Poetry can be a gateway to your new beginning. Give yourself the gift of a new perspective and freedom from what no longer is. When you’re ready, dive into a few (or all) of these poetry prompts to deepen the alchemizing of pain to power.
Let’s use poetry for self-therapy, but together 🤝
For when you’re searching for empowerment…
- When do you feel the most powerful? Channel that version of yourself and pen a poem encouraging a nervous or afraid past self.
- Create a poem that includes the phrase, “I find my strength within…”.
- Take a gaze in the mirror. Then, using mirror imagery, write on all you once saw versus the person you see now.
- Try out creating a haiku honoring the garden that blooms within you in all of your seasons.
If you’re hoping to connect with inner child…
- Create an ode to a past version of you that did the best they could.
- Write a poem speaking to your inner child. What did they long to hear?
- Begin a poem with the words “I once was…”
- Write a poem titled, “What I Know Now”.
To support you through changing seasons…
- Through today’s poem, describe your healing journey as seasons.
- Imagine the healing process as a mythic adventure and write a poem describing the monsters and treasures found along the way.
- Describe the awakening of your soul in the spring of healing. How does it feel and what does it see?
- What transitions do you find yourself in now? Pen a short haiku about the release and welcoming you’re experiencing.
For those craving embodiment…
- Write a love poem to your body. Every curve and valley serves as inspiration.
- Create a tale celebrating the five senses in some way using end rhyme.
- Move your body in your favorite way and begin a poem on all of the emotions that stir afterwards with, “Flowing through me, I sense…”
- Tap into your sacral chakra (your gut feeling). Describe the sensations with as vivid language and imagery as possible.
