User:Alessia/Writing
Poetry as a human experience
I remember writing my first poem in primary school. I was crawling in my childhood discomfort, after a particularly bad argument with my mother, one that I don’t even remember the details of. I sheltered myself in a corner, pressing myself against the walls. Without shedding a tear I grabbed the first surface I could find, funnily enough a catechism book, and on the first page I poured out the most intense poem of my life.
I don’t recall it at all, nor I found that book again.
That was the beginning of a very common pattern for me: the inability for me to not be able to open myself emotionally. At the same time it was the start of something new, a new way to seek light around compressed locked up feelings, a way to let emotions flow without making me die.
I don’t feel that was the real answer to many personal problems, but indeed writing helped me, it was a useful tool.
Not through writing prose or diary clear confessions of feelings, but with poetic language, a confused dense symbolic one, that became the truest form of visualising feelings I couldn’t understand, let alone heal from.
As I continue wandering through reality I’ve become more fascinated by poetry, not just as a personal outlet but as a medium. I’m intrigued by how others use it, what it means to them to write and experience it. All this, while I still need to decipher poetry as a medium for myself, what it means to me.
There won’t be any point of this research that aims to answer the question “what is poetry?”, I am firmly convinced there is no definitive nor useful answer to that, I will instead explore the many ways poetry can be understood, created and played with. If there is a point of truth I believe in it is this: poetry is a human experience.
Poetry as a political experience
https://www.yahoo.com/news/something-doesnt-love-wall-poetry-matter-age-trump-090027168.html?soc_src=mail%26soc_trk=ma
In the political world, poetry is nothing new, as well as other many art forms.
Art permeates society, culture, and daily life.
The increasing accessibility and democratisation of art, once reserved for the elites, have also made poetry more available to the general population.
Robert Pinsky, in (add) , said about poetry that it is “essential to the whole democratic project, It was traditionally part of the education of ruling classes, and in our country the ruling class is supposed to be the people, everybody.”. Even if Pinsky is referring to the US poetry scene I would like to extend these same words to most of western experience of poetry, in contemporary times.
With this broader accessibility, poetry gains the potential to act as a tool for social change and political action. For example, initiatives like those promoted by organizations such as Poetry Therapy highlight how poetry can inspire reflection, healing, and activism. This way, poetry continues to play a vital role in the civic engagement on addressing society’s issues.
What is interesting is …
This is what, for example, the The Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy of the University of Pennsylvania is doing: exploring the interrelation between poetry and democratic politics.
https://amc.sas.upenn.edu/poetry-and-politics
(Francisco's interview about poetry as a social justice and fighting tool)
Poetry as a feminist experience
- Feminist poetry as a response to exclusion from male dominated literary spaces (costellazione parallela)
- Historical connection between poetry and activism in women civil rights movements
- How does poetry address issues like gender inequality, identity, intersectionality, how it provide a space for reclaiming silenced narratives
- Critiquing gender roles and celebration of nonconformity
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria), Kamala Das (India), or Forough Farrokhzad (Iran)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_a_Common_Language
current situation of women’s poetry in English and critical attention to your pioneering contribution to the field of feminist literary criticism