Using Poetry in Therapy

• Poetry is simply speaking truth.  Each of us has a truth as unique as our own fingerprints.  Without knowing that truth, without speaking it aloud, we cannot know who we are and that we are already whole.  In the most profound way, speaking our truth allows us to know that our life matters, that our viewpoint has never existed before.  That our suffering, our joy, our fears and our hopes are important and meaningful.  One of the best-kept secrets in this technically oriented culture is that simply speaking truth heals.
• Often the first poem is the hardest, the one caught by a lifetime of being smaller than you are, trapped by your ideas of what art is, what an artist is, immobilized by the judgments of teachers whose names you may never again remember.  How did we come to forget that anything true is beautiful?  How young were we then?
• Writing poetry is contagious.  Once past the first, we may discover that we have written poetry for years without knowing.  Because no one was listening, not even ourselves.
• Our poetry allows us to remember that our integrity is not in our body, that despite our physical limitations, our suffering and our fears, there is something in us that is not touched, something shining.  Our poetry is its voice.  To hear that voice is to know the power to heal.  To believe.

       Poetry Worksheets

• Using Poetry in Therapy Worksheet
• Haiku and Senryu Poetry Worksheet
• Where Are You Glued Together Worksheet
• Words That Cry Out Worksheet