Writing as a tool

In January I'll be participating in the Path Of Freedom online training, and when winter eases, I hope to explore the possibilities of a meditation group at the women's prison in my area in Idaho. I'm also interested in combining the stillness and awareness of meditation practice with writing. I witnessed the power of writing to give voice, to unburden hearts, while participating in several meditation and writing retreats with veterans of war and family (I am family). In the future I'd like to bring these tools, meditation and writing, to inmates, children and families suffering the consequences of war . . . . 

This is my question: Is anyone using writing: reading and writing essays, poetry, stories in your prison work, youth-at-risk, or other groups? I'm interested in how you incorporate the writing and what benefits you see.

I just read an interview by the poet and physician Rafael Campo. He uses poetry with his patients and with other doctors at conferences. His "thesis," as the interviewer Courtney Davis describes is: ". . . writing poetry shared the attributes of witnessing, healing, naming, and bringing about, if not cure, then wholeness."I think this can be equally poweful to inmates, the families of inmates, youth-at-risk, children suffering the consequences of war and natural disasters; wherever people are suffering. Thoughts?

(You can find an interview with Rafael Campo at Poets.org)

Tags: art, writing

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Permalink Reply by Tamon Mark Uttech on November 13, 2010 at 7:53am
Onegaishimasu, if I may, I would encourage the writing of senryu; simple three-line verse of everyday life and times. It may be very difficult for prisoners who have no access to a window or any part of nature, but human life is also nature. What I think writing senryu does is, it expands one's understanding of the world, expands one's understanding of life. At the same time, it reduces life and the world to a snap shot that one can visit again and again and experience a feeling of being alive. Here are two examples of recent senryu by myself:

In the Autumn wind-
Leaves meeting
other leaves.


Standing behind a door
In a dream-
My father


I hope this helps give you some idea... The difference between haiku and senryu is that haiku employs a strict 5-7-5 syllable format including a seasonal reference. Senryu is three line verse of a looser fashion.

In gassho,

tamon
Permalink Reply by Susan Austin on November 15, 2010 at 11:32am
Arigato Gozaimas, Tamon,

Thank you for your response. The idea of using senryu is a great help. You elaborate well on how the use of such a form can be helpful. I especially like when you say, "At the same time, it reduces life and the world to a snap shot that one can visit again and again and experience a feeling of being alive." The feeling of being alive!

I'll let you know how it goes when I have the opportunity to put senryu into practice. Have you used the form yourself? Can you recommend a senryu poet you particularly like, or a collection of selected poems?

And thank you for sharing your own poems. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them.

Blessings,

Susan
Permalink Reply by Tamon Mark Uttech on November 16, 2010 at 6:30am
Onegaishimasu, I found some inspiration in a story I came across, of a traveler who encountered two poets standing on a bridge. They were writing verse on leaves and dropping the leaves in the river flowing beneath the bridge. "Aren't you guys just throwing away your gifts?" the traveler asked. "Not at all," they replied, "we are giving it and giving it, and so it keeps coming to be given."

In gassho,

tamonmark
Permalink Reply by Susan Austin on November 25, 2010 at 6:23pm
Thank you, Tamon. It is an inspiring story. Generosity goes a long way.
Permalink Reply by Susan Austin on December 9, 2010 at 5:04pm
This is a trailer to the documentary: What I Want My Words To Do To You. Although meditation is not part of this writing program for women incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, I think it's an example of how words have given these women a voice to write about their past, their inexperiences as a prisoner, their dreams, their forgivenesses. . .
The whole movie is available from Netflix.

Permalink Reply by Katherine on December 13, 2010 at 3:39pm

Hi, Susan - I'm very interested in the work you want to do with prisoners around writing. For some tme now I've been wanting to do a writing group at the hospice where I volunteer - not necessarily with the people who are dying but with the people who come to day hospice. Writing can be such a powerful tool for healing - have you seen Writing as a way of healing by Louise de Salvo? You might find it useful. I do love Rafael Campo's work. He is an amazing, compassionate man.

Permalink Reply by Susan Austin on December 16, 2010 at 1:21pm

Hi Katherine - a writing group at the hospice where you volunteer sounds like a good idea. I have a poet friend who worked with a grief support group and she felt the writing did a great deal to heal. I've been thinking of creating a writing group for people recovering from Lyme Disease, myself being one. Some kind of online workshop-- there's a great deal of emotional healing that's needed along with the physical healing from this bizarre ailment. I think the sharing in a therapeutic writing group is also important. We learn so much about ourselves from hearing what others in a group write. This was true for the juvenile offenders in Mark Salzman's book True Notebooks.

I actually have DeSalvo's book on my bookshelf! I got it early on in my illness but was unable to follow much of anything. I'm so glad you brought it up. It's the perfect writing book for me to have a look at now.

Thanks for your thoughts, Susan

Permalink Reply by Robert Henry Fuerste on December 13, 2010 at 6:25pm

I taught writing to college students a long time, and the best insight I developed was that non-writers or beginning writers see things in images, so any time you can encourage visual techniques with writing, the greater the response.  Lucia Cappachione's The Creative Writer is a great place to start.

Permalink Reply by Susan Austin on December 16, 2010 at 1:41pm

Hi Robert -- thanks for the insight, and I agree with you. I'll see if I can find Cappachione's book. Do you suggest any creative writing to the inmates you write?

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