Poetry Therapy

 

I have enjoyed reading and writing poetry since I was little girl. The first poetry I fell in love with was contained in Peacock Pie by Walter de la Mare, in my adolescence I became obsessed with Sylvia Plath and the poems contained in Ariel. From 2000 to 2005 I ran my own poetry group 'SubVerse' which explored 'the Poetry of surrender'. We also ran art events and unassertiveness courses, looking back it was all fun and therapeutic, I kind of miss it.

Moving forward I encountered more poetry as I moved away from Christianity into Buddhism, there was much talk about Rumi. A favourite poem among the mindful is Leisure by WH Davies. Below is a wonderful poetry anthology you can dip into throughout the year, it includes many therapeutic poems including Leisure.

Space Therapy

I nearly forgot how important contemplating our place in the universe is to our well-being and mental health. Humility is an important, often underestimated quality, it is, after all, about being humble. What better way to let go of our everyday troubles than to contemplate the vastness of time and space and our insignificance in the face of it. It is good to do our best with what we have; just because we are small beings, living small lives, does not mean we don't do anything positive. It is good to do what good we can. Count stars, contemplate eternity, visit a space observatory, connect with the vastness beyond your little life and little world, it could be wonderfully liberating.

The Poetry of Surrender

At the end of 2018 I did a mega sort out of my house and also managed to put six of my favourite SubVerse poems onto Wattpad. 'The poetry of surrender' which I started to develop in the early noughties had gained a new significance after discovering Buddhism and mindfulness in March. The six poems on my SubVerse page are The Wave, Normal, Still, The Yes Party Manifesto, Geisha and Dare. I think Normal, Still and The Yes Party Manifesto are most relevant to what I was discovering in Buddhism.

Space Poetry

I have long been interested in science fiction, but have not written as much of it as I would have liked. Some of my spooky stories could be seen in a science fiction light, quite a few of them in fact, stories like Duchess Doom, The Creature and Living Rooms, I hope to develop them further in the future. I think these following four poems, highlight my literary interest in science fiction and space facts. They are Destination Deep Space, Planet Renga and Pulsar Observation.

 

All Grown Up

'All Grown Up' is the third of my 'Still Life' poetry collections on Wattpad, it contains the poems that most reflect my grown up thoughts on life.

'Opening the door' is about being bold and stepping into the unknown.

'The shadow people' is about the invisible forces that shape our world.

'Alone' is about the profound difference between loneliness and solitude.

'The sufferers' is about the deep pain sometimes involved in just being alive.

'Crossing the bridge' has a similar theme to the first poem, it is about leaving the familiar behind and moving into a completly new landscape.

Upside-Down World

Upside-Down World was a SubVerse poem, it was meant to highlight the paradoxical nature of finding strength and control in acceptance and surrender. I found it also came in handy when discussing difficult and potentially contradictory concepts in Christianity.

Must be the weather

I have written a number of poems about the seasons over the years. This one developed from the verse about the sunny day.

Twenty Years of SubVerse

When my daughter was born in the year 2000 I got the feeling that surrendering to aspects of my life that were beyond my control would be very important in the years to come. I decided that a good way to deal with these difficult feelings would be to start a writing group to explore 'The Poetry of Surrender'; I called it SubVerse. SubVerse came to an end in 2005 and I wrote an obituary for it on the 6th of June 2006 (6/6/6). I have used aspects of SubVerse, over the years, in various of my creative projects including my virtue project, my craft stall and my blog. This poem, 'Malleable' is one of my favourites from that time, it commemorated SubVerse's brief life and the twenty years that have passed since its birth.

Teenage Troubles

I used to write more and much longer poems when I was a teenager, maybe I had more time back then at least for writing poetry. The five poems in my Teenage Troubles collection occupy a special place in my heart.

Dave was a caveman came second in the Hounslow Poetry Competition in 1984.
Not a very pretty sight is an earlier insight into body dysmorphia.
The Antique Junk Shop has developed into a YouTube video.
Who's been corrupting our son? is about my brother and his teenage friends.
Inadequacy comes from the same place as my interest in 'Unspirational' and Stoicism.

An Anatomy of Love

'An Anatomy of Love' is my seven poem cycle of reflections on romantic relationships from waiting for something to begin through enjoyment and endurance and finally coming out on the other side. 'Anything but love' is a poem about distraction, about what you might concentrate on when trying to move on from a broken heart. It is more descriptive of my life since 2008.

The six book challenge - poetry and mindfulness

These six poetry and mindfulness books look so lovely and I think are full of joy, comfort and wisdom. I have been enjoying dipping into them in recent weeks and hope to enjoy more of them, more in depth, in the future.

Poetry

1. A year of Reading aloud by Georgina Rodgers
2. Dream work by Mary Oliver
3. The emergency poet by Deborah Alma

Mindfulness

1. Gardening for mindfulness by Holly Farrell
2. The things you can see only when you slow down by Haemin Sunim
3. The mindful path to self-compassion by Christopher Germer

The Greatness of the Everyday

I have written various poems about the seasons over the years starting with one of my early childhood poems 'Out of the Door'. From then I wrote a piece for an early PowerPoint presentation in the late 1990s called 'Through the seasons' which eventually became four seasonal haiku. Amy has also written and illustrated a seasonal poem called 'What do people do', which has been used as a YouTube video to accompany my song 'For What I Am'. Some of my short poems have developed to encompass the seasons; poems like 'Nature' and 'It must be the weather'. 'The Greatness of the everyday' was originally one verse about Spring, but I have since found something good to say about summer, autumn and winter too.

Only Us

I have written many romantic poems over the years, some about having trouble getting started on relationships like 'Valentine's Day' or 'The Valliant Knight'. Some poems are about trouble at the end of relationships like 'Human Remains' or 'Anything but love'. Different aspects of romantic love can be found on my 'Anatomy of love' seven poem cycle, available on WattPad. 'Only Us' is about the time in a love affair when coupledom is all important. I feel it is a brief poem for a brief moment.

Still Life poetry booklet

Still Life is my second ALF poetry booklet. It consists of my three poetry collections on WattPad. Teenage Troubles features a selection of poetry I wrote as a teenager and includes Dave was a Caveman, a poetry competition runner up, and the Antique Junk Shop, which is now also a YouTube video. An Anatomy of Love features romantic poetry I have written over the years on different aspects of relationships from Valentine's Day to Anything but Love. All Grown Up is about specifically an adult view of the world including expanded older poems Crossing the Bridge and Opening the Door. The poetry booklet also features drawings by myself and my daughter some of which can be found on our Pinterest pages here. The three collections of poetry can be found on my WattPad pages here. Below is a collection of poetry books produced by ALF Creations, which I sell on our craft stall.

The Poetry of Surrender on Wattpad

I have been meaning to put six poems from my days at SubVerse onto Wattpad for quite some time.

 You can now find them here.

A Feminine Embrace with Irish Eileen

Irish Eileen was a beautiful girl I met at college, long before I acquired an Irish name myself. When coming up with ideas on how to create a video to go with my song two complementary ideas came to my mind. The first was my poem 'A feminine embrace' and the second was a set of pictures Amy  had been working on featuring various very glamourous looking young ladies. Some of this work on the project can be seen below.

Musical Blue

Before I had my daughter I used to go to extra curricular activities and courses practically every night of the week. One of the evening classes I went to was the WEA writers group in Hayden School, Northwood. I usually worked on projects I had started on at home. One work I did produce entirely in the evening class was Musical Blue.

Pulsar

 Pulsar has been a work in progress for some time now. I wanted the illustration to look something like a 1950s sci-fi film poster, but I think my picture above looks more like 'Scooby Doo' than 'When Worlds Collide.' I have recently completed a more successful science fiction picture called 'Out of this world', I have used it as background for my poem 'Pulsar Observation'.

The most successful 1950s Sci-Fi inspired poster I did, previously, was for 'Destination Deep Space'. 

The Antique Junk Shop

        

I wrote this poem as a teenager, it was somewhat inspired by 'From beyond the grave' an old Amicus portmanteau horror movie starring Peter Cushing. I drew the old man who runs the shop and owns the cat based on Peter Cushing. You can find the poem on my WattPad adolescent poetry page and as a small montage movie on YouTube.

Poems for Yin

I spent some of the late 1990s and early noughties trying to get to grips with what femininity was all about. It was also the time in my life when I became a mother and was also trying to get to grips with being the best mum I could be to my baby daughter. With hindsight maybe the best thing to do with femininity is just be it, if that's how you feel and maybe try not to analyse it too much. My 'Poems for Yin' are written at a time when I was trying to analyse femininity. I heard an Indian saying once, intended for both men and women, which states 'Walk in the feminine but be mindful of the masculine,' so maybe this subject is worthy of deeper thought.