Poetic Practices For Living Creatively

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Mia Zamora, PhD mzamora@kean.edu

& Kefah Ayesh, MA ayeshk@kean.edu

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Link to this slide deck

How do you feel today? ​Please describe yourself through a metaphor. ​�​�For example:�"This afternoon, I am a content cat in a sun patch." ​�or ​�"This afternoon, I am a frozen lake."​​�

Welcome everyone

Intentions

• Explore therapeutic and restorative poetry practices to process grief, fear and conflict
• Harness poetry's ability to create an intentional pause to notice detail and metaphor: words as meditation
• Joy-centered writing to balance depth with expansion of hope.
• Balance is key for sustainable emotional well-being and cultivating creativity

• Poetry is designed to elicit a moment or a feeling or an insight, and that's different than the way fiction or nonfiction is structured. Characteristics of poetry is this ability to be able to create symbols and metaphors that really often creates a feeling and a picture for you, an image or multiple images, depending on the poem

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• Poetry taps into the unconscious, into those things that we hold, but we don't necessarily have top of mind. And through this idea of symbol and visual imagery, which is created, you are able to tap into that deep well of the unconscious.

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Invitation to Meditate

• Settle In: Find a comfortable seat, rest your hands gently, and soften your gaze or close your eyes.
• Breathe and Soften: Take a few slow, deep breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth, relaxing your face, jaw, and neck.
• Form a Gentle Smile: Let a soft, effortless smile form at the corners of your mouth. Think of something or someone that makes you smile.
• Turn the Smile Inward: Imagine that smile radiating inside your body, through your face, throat, and chest.
• Send the Smile Through Your Body: With each breath, guide the smile to your heart, lungs, digestive system, and spine, acknowledging and appreciating each part.
• Close Gently: Let the smile spread throughout your whole body, take one final deep breath, and slowly open your eyes, carrying the smile into the rest of your day.

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https://youtu.be/JoHN7lJxD8M?si=QYnC0is_C1TO637b

Core Practices for Mindful, Restorative Writing

• Find Your Moment: Notice the time of day when you feel closest to yourself. It might be early morning before the world wakes up, or another quiet pocket of time when your thoughts are unfiltered and your heart is open.
• Set the Scene: Create an atmosphere that supports you. Play music that matches your mood or inspires imagination. Let it be soft and inviting, not distracting, just enough to signal to your body that this is a sacred moment.
• Choose Your Tools: Use what feels natural. Journal, laptop, scrap paper, napkin, the format doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re ready to begin.
• Write Without Interruption: Set a timer for 5 to 10 minutes. Let your pen or fingers move freely. Don’t stop, don’t edit, and don’t worry about making sense, just see what comes.
• Welcome the Unsaid: Allow what’s hidden, half-formed, or surprising to emerge. 
• Let It Be What It Is: When the timer ends, pause. Don’t rush to interpret or fix your words. You’ve just made contact with something real, let that be enough.

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Writing Walks

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• Decide when it is best for you to walk today.  While walking, you can simply take a moment to silently acknowledge all that you have. Giving thanks can transform your perspective and your life.

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• What do our chosen paths say about our perspective?
• If you could represent yourself with a single object, what would it be and why?

• Try an evening walk or a very early morning walk. Or if you can’t walk, remember to pay attention to your body, and try to move.  Stretch and meditate.
• Be patient with yourself, pace it as you like, and take notice of what catches your eye, your ear, your heart
• An uncertainty I must creatively adapt to is…
• What helps you think?
• Take a photo, share a glimpse through words, or doodle something.

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Mindful Poetic Pause

• Find a quiet place, settle your body, and reflect on where you want more clarity or ease in your life.
• Breathe deeply, filling your belly on each inhale and softening your body on each exhale.
• Notice the fears, doubts, or stresses you’re carrying and gently commit to letting them go.
• Pick one phrase that speaks to you most deeply.
• In the presence of fear, I will make space for courage. In the presence of self-doubt, I will make space for self-belief. In the presence of feeling hurried, I will make space for slowing down.
• In the presence of overwhelm, I will make space for rest. In the presence of overthinking, I will make space for letting go.
• In the presence of chaos, I will make space for inner peace. In the presence of confusion, I will make space for clarity. In the presence of pain, I will make space for self-compassion.
• Bring your attention to the phrase that resonated with you the most. Write down the phrase on a sticky note and carry it with you throughout the day. Somewhere it is visible to you.
• Pay attention to the shift when you reread the phrase. Did you offer yourself more grace? Did it calm you? Write down how rereading it throughout the day grounded you and helped you honor yourself. Think about all the ways you want or need to make space so that you can unclench the fist of expectations and bloom into the best version of yourself.

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Integration: Ruins & Foundations

How to Do It

1. First half (4 min): Write about something in your life that has “collapsed”; a relationship, a belief, a plan. Be honest, detailed and specific.
2. Second half (4 min): Imagine using the fragments to build something new. It doesn’t have to be “better,” just transformed. Describe what that new structure looks like or feels like.

Why It fosters creativity

• Moves from acknowledgement of loss to imaginative reconstruction, which fosters resilience.
• The dual-structure format prevents toxic positivity and honors grief before shifting to possibility.

prompts:

• Ruins: “It fell apart when…”
• Foundations: “From the rubble, I shaped…”

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Dialogue with Self: Estrangement and Reconciliation

(5 min)

• Take a moment to picture your “public self” and the “self they rarely show.”
• Imagine these two selves sitting down for a conversation.
• Write the dialogue in two alternating voices.  No need for perfect grammar, just capture what each side would truly say.
• See if your two voices can end with a question or a truth.
• Why Its restorative
• Based on expressive writing theory: acknowledging hidden aspects of self reduces inner tension and increases integration.
• Writing in two voices helps externalize internal conflict, making it easier to process without feeling overwhelmed.

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“Positive Event Amplification” Poem�

(Boehm & Lyubomirsky, 2008 – positive psychology writing exercises)�How to Do It:

• Recall a vivid positive event.
• It can be big (graduation, winning an award) or small a kind gesture, a perfect cup of coffee.
• The key is that it made you feel good( proud, loved, peaceful, excited, or grateful.)
• Write a poem in the present tense and slow the moment down to re-live it.
• Close your eyes and re-immerse yourself in the sensory details of that moment. Ask:
• Sight: What did you see? (colors, people, setting)
• Sound: What did you hear? (voices, nature, music)
• Touch: What textures or sensations were present?
• Smell: Were there scents in the air?
• Taste: Did you taste anything?

Why Its Restorative:

• Based on broaden-and-build theory that asserts positive emotions expand cognitive flexibility and resilience.
• Turns a memory into a reusable “joy anchor.”

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The Yes Poem ( group practice)

How to Do It

• Write 4–6 lines, each starting with the word “Yes,” followed by something you welcome, embrace, or celebrate in life.
• Invite them to choose their favorite line.
• One by one, each participant reads their line aloud creating a spontaneous group poem.

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Why it is restorative

• Repetition builds rhythm and emotional intensity.
• Can be read collectively, which fosters belonging and ends on an uplifting note.
• Positive self-affirmation strengthens neural pathways linked to optimism and resilience.

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• A mix of simple and abstract lines: “Yes to coffee at sunrise” or “Yes to love after loss.” is encouraged.

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Chanting the Flowers Off the Wall�(Christopher Davis – Group Writing Ritual)�

• A ritual to loosen self-consciousness and connect with the primal rhythm of poetry.
• Talk for a moment about the wavy rhythm a poem connects language to, the song never never-ending. We talk about living inside poetry, giving yourself over: its voice, sacrificing, if only in gestural ways, self-consciousness, self-concern, in order to liberate the primal life of poetry. Releasing the“polish pressure” in writing.

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• 1. Explain the intention: freeing language from overthinking. Acknowledge it may feel “absurd” or uncomfortable at first.
• Move the group to a new location: Outdoors (garden, wooded area, campus path), Indoors but outside the normal meeting space
• Add sensory cues: light incense, change lighting, or open windows.
• 2. The Ritual
• Ask each person to let a single random word “fly” into their head.
• Repeat that word out loud continuously for 20 minutes. Keep pace steady, almost like a mantra or chant. Use an alarm to mark the time.
• Acknowledge the initial discomfort, awkwardness, and self-conscious laughter. Feeling “stuck” on the meaning of the chosen word.
• Repetition erodes the word’s meaning. Word becomes pure sound, rhythm, and vibration. Participants begin to feel emotional dislocation and release.
• An energy sync is created and the harmony of sound overcomes embarrassment. "Convulsive beauty” emerges as raw, imperfect, unfiltered expression.

The Poetry Response Circle�

(Journal of Poetry Therapy & NAPT community practices)

How to Do It:

• Select a short poem (published or participant-written).
• Read it aloud twice. After the first reading, each participant shares a single word or image that resonated.
• After the second reading, invite a short written response poem inspired by any part of the text.

Why Its fosters creativity :

• Builds community and trust through shared listening.
• Uses existing poetry as a safe creative springboard, lowering entry barriers for hesitant writers.

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There is a push to EXTRACT our rest.

Our ability to DREAM (a key element of rest) must be rooted in the ability:

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• Refigure our world
• Recharge in order to live in it….

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by Palestinian-American artist Mary Hazboun

@maryhazboun48

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“The Art of Weeping”

Daily Journaling

• Spiral Journaling

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Simple Prompts

• “This is the moment I realized…”
• “If my anger had a shape…”
• “The room inside me where no one goes…”
• “The weather forecast for my week ahead…”
• “The storm in me says”
• “Something I need to forgive myself for is…”

Invitation to Write

Theme: Intention

Icebreaker Q (top): Who was your first true Friend and what brought you together?

Deeper Q (bottom): "How did you (or will you) know you are in love?"

Theme: Reflection

Icebreaker Q (top): What is one magical memory from the past year?

Deeper Q (bottom): "How have your spiritual views changed in the last decade?”

Spiral Journal (LS in development)�Calmly prepare for the work ahead while sharpening observational precision. �Inspired by Lynda Barry

Draw a continuous spiral as slowly & tightly as possible (1 min)

Right now my body feels…

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This feeling tells me that…

Right now my body feels…

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This feeling tells me that…

The rituals that have helped weave my life together include…

What is sacred to me includes…

The rituals that have helped weave my life together include…

Right now my body feels…

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This feeling tells me that…

What is sacred to me includes…

The rituals that have helped weave my life together include…

Right now my body feels…

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This feeling tells me that…

A divine seed of hope that lives inside me is…

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Review your journal

Underline or circle anything that stands out!

Sharing our stories

(and listening for insights)

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Share one insight that stood out to you in your journal

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Sacred Economies? Can we move closer to justice by giving what feels sacred inside us to the world?

Seeds of hope live in all of us, passed on through time, through memory.

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But knowing, sensing, feeling has to come first…

Closing Invitation

• Keep a notebook for mindful poetic moments
• Alternate shadow and joy practices weekly
• Let poetry be a space for both release and celebration

Resources

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• Equity Unbound. Community building activities
• https://onehe.org/equity-unbound/

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• Behn, Robin, and Chase Twichell, editors. The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach.

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• Holstee Reflection Cards - A Deck of 100+ Questions to Spark Meaningful Connections and Conversations

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