Why Poetry?
Poetic Justice uses prompts and practices that are trauma-informed and gender-sensitive, meaning that our curriculum is designed to address root causes of trauma, trauma experienced before and during incarceration, and childhood experiences. We are often asked… Why poetry?
Poetry allows people to give words to the unspeakable. It encourages one to truly identify their emotions and their truth in a way that can be either direct or indirect, granting the poet agency and control over their voice. This is the first step to healing. When you begin to process trauma by writing it down, there is a graphomotor process that occurs as your words go through your arm, into your pen, and onto a paper; this process is a form of release.
We define poetry as a truth in a moment. It is whatever you need it to be for yourself at any given moment. There is no right or wrong way to do poetry, it doesn’t need to rhyme, sound like Shakespeare, or even be a page long. This is especially important as we sit in community with people, both participants and team members, who come from a variety lived experiences and literacies.
The second step to this healing process is community; releasing those words from your body and hearing your own voice speak them into a room where people are listening and hearing - this is where transformative healing occurs. It makes it so that you no longer have to hold onto heavy emotions and allows for our community to hold the weight of those emotions/experiences with you.