Tag: Poetry therapy

• Update on The Summer Book Project

  In the second half of 2020 I started a book-long erasure poetry and collage project: The Summer Book project.

  I have been mining Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book for poetic lines that express the isolation of living with a bewildering chronic illness and the struggle to keep a sense of purpose. This came about after reading a line in the introduction about how “an island can be dreadful for someone from the outside” and how it “has no need of you”. I just couldn’t decide if I’m the person the island has no need of or if I’m the island.

  Progress has been slow, because I’m constantly distracted by a million things. Then there was some growth.

  I wrote a post a while back “Where to go from here“. I talk about how I realised that this victim narrative was keeping me trapped in my discomfort. So now I’m making a conscious effort to draw out the positive instead of the negative.

  I’d like to share some of these newer erasure works with you today 😊

  You can also follow my progress on my Instagram page.

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  February 24, 2023

  bibliotherapy, blackout poetry, chronic illness, Collage, erasure poetry, mental health, mindfulness, Poetry, Poetry therapy

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• I never sought the glory: On seeking fame

  

  Antonio Machado’s poem “I never sought the glory” is an almost Taoist contemplation of the ephemerality of fame. In this poem he states that he’s never sought it out, he doesn’t want it, which is a strange claim to make for a poet, isn’t it?
  When poets write, isn’t it to communicate something vital to others? To leave something so important behind that it had to be put down in a fixed form?

   
  Most of us, at some point in our writing careers, realize that our poems, our stories, are like soap bubbles drifting by. 
  They capture the awe and attention of some person who’s finely attuned enough to appreciate its beauty, and then it pops or is carried away by the wind and is lost against the backdrop of a busy city street.

  
  Machodo’s soap bubbles are the perfect analogy for the impermanence of attention, as well as life. Indeed, the poet seems to be thinking about the time when he’ll no longer be around, as he states: ” I never sought […] to leave in memory of men my song”.
  “Subtle” is the keyword in this poem. Subtle as in understated.

  
  The poet expresses that he appreciates how his poems have briefly delighted readers, but that they should not be seen as important. In fact, his last lines contain a warning. We have seen the delicate bubble floating in blue, but then there is the foreboding verb “trembling”, and in the last line the bubble pops. A suitable onomatopoeic ending.

  
  Fame and life are equally transient states. There’s something peaceful in giving up the striving. You’ll have more time to appreciate the small bits of beauty that float by you every day.

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  I never sought the glory
  I never sought the glory
  nor to leave in memory
  of men my song;
  I love subtle worlds,
  Weightless and graceful
  like bubbles of soap.
  I like to see them painted
  In sunlight and scarlet, wafting
  under the blue sky, trembling
  suddenly and pop.
  

  Poem by Antonio Machado, translated from Spanish by Katie King.

  December 16, 2022

  bibliotherapy, mental health, Poetry, Poetry therapy

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