poetry: an avenue into the spirit

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Journal of Poetry Therapy, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1990 Poetry: An Avenue into the Spirit Arleen McCarty Hynes The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of biblio/poetly therapy as an avenue into the spirit that can promote individual integration and global aware- ness. The philosophical and psychological underpinnings linking the poetic and the spiritual are reviewed. The theme of the paper is developed through the acrostic, S-P-I-R-I-T, referring to spirituality, perception, insight, relevancy, in- tegration, and totality. Matthew Arnold, a 19th century poet and writer about religion, predicted that humankind would discover more and more that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, as well as for consolation, and sus- tenance. Global awareness appears to be the central theme for the 1990's. The search for community can be promoted through the poetic and the spiritual. The word spirit as it will be used in this paper pervades thoughts, feelings, and actions. It implies attitudes or principles that inspire and animate. The word SPIRIT, as an acrostic, will be the focus of this paper. In biblio/poetry therapy it is often suggested that participants use an acrostic when they need a structure to release their imaginations. It is suggested that members place the letters of a word of their choice in a column on a page, using each letter to begin either a word or a phrase. The result may be a very brief poem with just one word to a line. Or a member may use phrases of varying lengths, as suits the need of the writer to express a relevant thought. Address correspondence to Arleen McCarty Hynes, O.S.B., R.P.T., 35 South College Avenue, St. Joseph, MN., 56374. This paper originally was presented as a keynote address at the National Association for Poetry Therapy 10th Annual Conference in Milwaukee, WI., on May 19, 1990. 71 1990HumanSciences Press,Inc.

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Page 1: Poetry: An avenue into the Spirit

Journal of Poetry Therapy, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1990

Poetry: An Avenue into the Spirit

Arleen McCarty Hynes

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of biblio/poetly therapy as an avenue into the spirit that can promote individual integration and global aware- ness. The philosophical and psychological underpinnings linking the poetic and the spiritual are reviewed. The theme of the paper is developed through the acrostic, S-P-I-R-I-T, referring to spirituality, perception, insight, relevancy, in- tegration, and totality.

Mat thew Arnold, a 19th century poet and writer about religion, predicted that humankind would discover more and more that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, as well as for consolation, and sus- tenance. Global awareness appears to be the central theme for the 1990's. The search for community can be promoted through the poetic and the spiritual. The word spirit as it will be used in this paper pervades thoughts, feelings, and actions. It implies attitudes or principles that inspire and animate.

The word SPIRIT, as an acrostic, will be the focus of this paper. In biblio/poetry therapy it is often suggested that participants use an acrostic when they need a structure to release their imaginations. It is suggested that members place the letters of a word of their choice in a column on a page, using each letter to begin either a word or a phrase. The result may be a very brief poem with just one word to a line. Or a member may use phrases of varying lengths, as suits the need of the writer to express a relevant thought.

Address correspondence to Arleen McCarty Hynes, O.S.B., R.P.T., 35 South College Avenue, St. Joseph, MN., 56374.

This paper originally was presented as a keynote address at the National Association for Poetry Therapy 10th Annual Conference in Milwaukee, WI., on May 19, 1990.

71

�9 1990 Human Sciences Press, Inc.

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My acrostic, using the letters S-P-I-R-I-T, reveals my personal intui- tion about what happens to participants when they have taken part in a series of biblio/poetry therapy sessions and have achieved growth through participation. My thesis is that poetry promotes in the poetry therapy par- ticipants the following qualities made up of the word, SPIRIT.

S Spirituality P Perception I Insight R Relevancy I Integration T Totality

SPIRITUALITY

An examination of the spirit begins with a look at the first word of the acrostic, spirituality. "Therapy produced by searching creatively for the spiritual in the ordinary" (Burno, 1989, p. 159) is one aspect that conveys how biblio/poetry therapy produces a sense of spirituality in participants.

I recently received a Russian book from the author, Dr. M. Burno (1989), titled Therapy by means of creative self-expressions: Psychotherapeutic treatment of psychopathias and slowly progredient schizophrenic disorders- with defensive manifestations.

The author included a book review (typed in English) that indicates that the text describes several forms of creative arts therapies, "as well as therapy produced by searching creatively for the spiritual in the ordinary" (p. 159). The reference to raising the ordinary in life to a spiritual level has a great deal of personal meaning. For some, like myself, that spiritual level is a God-experience since we believe in a Power beyond the human. Each one of the major religions, Jewish, Christian and Moslem, believes in an all-powerful and living deity. Others, psychotherapists among them, seem to have often adopted the terminology of religious experience without recognizing a deity as a Source.

Abraham H. Maslow, a psychologist who sparked humanistic psychology, stated: "The spiritual life is part of the human essence. It is a defining characteristic of human nature, without which human nature is not fully human nature. It is part of the Real Self, of one's identity, of one's specialhood, of full humanness" (Chaing and Maslow, 1969, p. 471).

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Maslow and the Third Force psychologists see a necessary place for spirituality in our society (Goble, 1970). Carl Jung also used the term "religion." He made a forceful statement:

Among all my patients in the second half of l i f e - t h a t is to say, over thir ty-f ive- there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given to their followers, and none of them has been really healed who did not regain his religious outlook. This of course has nothing whatever to do with a particular creed or membership in a church (Jung, 1933, p. 229).

Jung goes on to say that "Man is never helped in his suffering by what he thinks for himself, but only by revelations of a wisdom greater than his own. It is this which lifts him out of his distress" (pp. 240-241). Jung looked into the depths of the psyche that he came to call the "col- lective unconscious" whose contents he designated as "archetypes." He believed that when the archetypes, which have an autonomous life, are recognized and consciously related to, that they can become spiritual guides for the personality. In this way the inadequate ego with its constant strug- gles of the will is strengthened. He remarks that a religious-minded person would speak of the guidance coming from God, while as a therapist he uses the phrase the "psyche has awakened to spontaneous life" (p. 242).

Gerald May (1977, 1982), a psychiatrist, has integrated the spiritual quest with psychiatry. May (1974) speaks more directly about religious faith: "I view the spiritual god-experience to be something for which there is a basic, even primitive, human need" (p. 861).

Each of the above theoreticians is supporting the reality of the spiritual as part of corporeal persons. Yvor Winters (1978) translated a nineteenth century French poem that he titled "The Lost Secret." Each of the four stanzas begins with the phrase: "Who will console me?" In each of the first three stanzas solutions are offered--Study, Adornment, and Travel. The poet points out that Study left him sad, that Adornment left him weeping as of old, and Travel discovered tears. In the final verse he acknowledged that nothing, no soul, can console him. The poet's voice tells him to descend into his own heart, "which God has left thee whole." But if his heart is not now whole, "let the matter end."

As poetry therapy participants discuss the poem, they examine the poet's consolations and compare them to their own search for fulfillment. Some thought their lives would be complete if they had a vacation house, or a boat, or a doctoral degree. But each had noticed that when it was achieved, it did not prove to be a complete source of solace. It is within their own hearts, they too conclude, that they must find their own peace. Here poetry has not totally solved the puzzle of consolation, but it has

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opened the doors to each one's Spirit to recognize that there is a need for further exploration of the spiritual side of their natures.

PERCEPTION

Perception is the second word in the acrostic, spirit, which describes the effects of poetry therapy on the lives of participants. Perception implies that if we are to live on a plane above the small details of daily life, our comprehension of the relationship between the tedious and the sublime must be expanded. As we cultivate our perceptions of our daily lives, we enable ourselves to reach to the spirit, which we have said "is that which permeates thoughts, feelings and actions."

Abraham Maslow (1964) noted that organized Religion, which he designated by using a capital R, had done much harm. However, he was increasingly aware of the human person's potential for peak-experiences to which he assigned Being-values or B-values as "descriptions of perception in peak-experiences" (pp. 91-96).

Maslow (1970) in the "New introduction: Religions, values, and peak- experiences" (written shortly before he died), stated his admiration for the Zen monks, and his own school of psychology, for recognizing that the "sacred is in the ordinary . . . . it is to be found in one's daily life, in one's neighbor, friends, and family, in one's back yard . . . everything is miraculous" (p. 85). He stressed that one can learn to see the miraculous by consciously striving to be aware. Maslow's certitude about the ability to learn to see reinforces the biblio/poetry therapy goal of improving the capacity to respond to images and insights which have been stimulated by the literature and the dialogue (Hynes & Hynes-Berry, 1986).

As a result of the practice of perceiving what he calls the miraculous, Maslow described the step beyond the peak-experience, the plateau-ex- perience. There, instead of the highly emotionally charged perception of life, the plateau-experience would be a steady, serene, calm, autonomous response to the miraculous, the awesome, the sacred in the ordinary, Uni- tive, the Being-values (Maslow, 1970). That description is similar to what is regarded as desirable attributes in people of prayer.

Jung's approach is, of course, very different. In terms of what modern man perceives to be the center of the universe, Jung mentions the mandala, which is an ancient, Oriental, concentric representation of the cosmos, with the image of the deity at its center. However, modern people see many images at the center of the mandalas they dream, or draw, but not that of a deity. They place themselves at the center, "the place of deity seems to be taken by the wholeness of man" (Jung, 1969, p. 72).

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A poetry therapist might use Moffitt's poem (1962), "To Look at Any- thing" (p. 12) to help participants become aware of learning to see the ordinary in a special way. He tells us that if you want to know a thing, you look at it long and carefully. To "Be the thing you see," you must actually be the stems and leaves, and the small silences between the leaves, you have to take your time. Finally, then, Moffitt says you "touch the very peace/They issue from." Touching that peace would be to sense the miracle in the ordinary tree, the ordinary leaves of any tree, or, indeed, the essence of anything. Finding the silences between the leaves would evoke the beauty of the experience. And thus a lifetime search might be begun.

INSIGHT

Insight, the third word of the acrostic, is another value that poetry can help achieve. Insight is a way of seeing deeply into the inner workings of things, of people, of feelings and also of being able to understand them. As T. S. Eliot (1957) has said, poetry has its own specific intention, and beyond that "there is also the communication of some new experience, or some fresh understanding of the familiar, or the expression of something we have experienced but have no words for, which enlarges our conscious- ness or refines our sensibility" (p. 8).

Or, from another perspective, poetry defamiliarizes, it moves us by unexpected means to new possibilities and a new vision (Jasper, 1989). Whichever way we express the effect of poetly we find that when a poem engages the participant, the process of gaining insight has begun.

William James was the first to make a psychological analysis of religion, which is often seen as noncorporeal reality. He felt that the mind needed to be tuned aright to gain the most from mystical experiences. James (1902) went so far as to say that "lyric poetry and music are alive and significant only in proportion as they fetch these vague vistas of a life continuous with our own . . . We are alive or dead to the eternal inner message of the arts according as we have kept or lost this mystical suscep- tibility" (p. 374). He seems to be interweaving the relationship among poetry, religion and psychology. An appreciation of poetry requires a religious sensibility, and conversely, we will not even hear the "eternal inner message of the arts" unless we keep an openness to the religious, in other words, to the things of the spirit.

Noted psychiatrist Silvano Arieti, expressed a deep sensitivity to poetry. He epitomized poetry's function of being able to lift our sights above the humdrum of the daily when he said:

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Poetry is one of those magic synthesis that make us bypass daily life and find un- dreamed beauties and unsuspected truths. This bypassing does not mean rejecting the world, the magic makes us rediscover the world . . . (Arieti, 1976, p. 191).

The poet Galway Kinnell wrote a widely appreciated poem, "Saint Francis and the Sow" (1982). Participants are usually smiling, even chuck- ling, as the poem is read. But the implications are not easily resolved, and participants enjoy unfolding individual meanings. The lines begin with a bud of any flower or tree which "flowers again from within, of self-bless- ing." The poem ends with the line, "the long, perfect loveliness of sow" (p. 126). During the silent period in which members write their personal responses to the poem and the discussion, one woman wrote of how repul- sive the animal, the sow, seemed to her. She did not want to compare herself to one. But if, as the poem says, St. Francis could persuade the sow to love herself through every earthen part of her, then she, a woman and a mother, could also come to love herself. She recognized that she needed that self-esteem to become a fully loving person toward her family and others. Amazing as it may seem, she found she had gained insight by sensing her affinity to a sow.

While Abraham Heschel, poetic philosopher, scholar, and rabbi, was not speaking about using poetry therapy to gain self-knowledge, he described the qualities of insight we have been referring to:

The roots of ultimate insights are f o u n d . . , not on the level of discursive thinking, but on the level of wonder and radical amazement, in the depths of awe, in our sensitivity to the mystery, in our awareness of the ineffable. It is the level at which the great things happen to the soul, where the unique insights of art (poetry), religions and philosophy come into being (Heschel, 1959, p. 72).

RELEVANCY

Relevancy is the next word in the acrostic about poetry therapy. An important question to ask is how does the poem become relevant. Language is the key because only through the language used can the poem become something significant to us. In all modes of biblio/poetry therapy the means of communication is language. In dance therapy, the communication is through bodily movement. In music therapy it is in sound. In art therapy it is through the visual image that insight is gained. In poetry therapy the message is given in words. The spirit is called forth, and the expression of the response to the literature is given through language, sometimes orally and more frequently in original writing.

We live surrounded, immersed, in language both inside and outside ourselves. Briefly consider how important are the things we say, even to ourselves. Sometimes, for example, our own language, or that of others,

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serves to immobilize and inhibit us. It is often for the solution of these problems that people come to therapy. On the other hand, language links us with others and often strengthens and renews us. As we communicate, through words, spoken or written, we become aware of our relationships with others. We become conscious of the network of family and social struc- tures. We become alert to different cultures, patterns of behavior and value systems. We reveal ourselves to ourselves as we create new thoughts and react to new experiences (Miller, 1972).

Language and literature are inexorably bound. Language in literature is used to communicate experiences which have been focused and formed by the writer. And the language of poetry says more and says it more in- tensely than does ordinary language (Perrine, 1956).

On the other hand, Ross Buck (1988), a psychologist, looking at the age-old trilogy of motivation, emotion, and cognition, adds another dimen- sion when he speaks of language "allowing us to reason about things that have never been, or could never be, actually experienced" (p. 10).

In the dialogue of poetry therapy, members can imaginatively modify or transform concepts and experiences they have found in a poem. In a special way, as we write our responses to the literature and the group, we are able to capture and bring into focus random thoughts. We use imagina- tion, reason and language in biblio/poetry therapy, thereby making decisions about ourselves by choosing from al ternat ive images and thoughts. It is in the process of placing in juxtaposition the many reactions by ourselves and the others in the session, that creativity emerges and we become ourselves, and the spirit soars. (Hynes & Hynes-Berry, 1986).

An example of the way words refine meanings occurred when one woman turned to writing using an acrostic of her own name, Lisa R. She wrote:

L Let I Imaginary worlds go S Savor instead A All that is R Real, all that is at hand.

As she examined it to discover the validity of what she had written, she was uneasy about the word, "imaginary." As she pondered over the word she became aware that it was her imagination that had helped her plan for the future, and had replaced threatening thoughts with peaceful images. She realized that her imagination was a healthy part of her. On the other hand, she remembered that she had previously acted on serious illusions about other people and also about her own nature with un-

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favorable results. That was the real i s sue - the false illusions she had acted on had brought her trouble, not healthy imaginings. What she needed, she decided was to "Let/illusory worlds go." The acrostic of her name, and the implications that naming held, now read: Let illusory worlds go/Savor in- stead/All that is/Real, all that is at hand.

A carefully crafted poem is the result of many similar deliberations. Finding the precisely correct word for a nuanced feeling or image is why we say language is used more intensely in poetry. If "a poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom" (Frost, 1963, p. 2) it is because of the choice of language. The words chosen strike a chord in the listener/reader. The subtlety of language discloses its power to clarify and develop perceptions, particularly about oneself, and therefore to make relevant what might have appeared to be distant or obscure.

INTEGRATION

As members of poetry therapy groups have moved toward achieving the things of the Spirit, they have increased their spirituality, perception, insight, relevancy; and now we consider integration. The integrated person is one whose ideas and responses to experience and personality traits har- monize into a pleasing whole. That person is comfortable with him or her- self and the surrounding persons, with the realities of existence, and the world as a whole. The integrated person, however, would be aware of the continuous work needed to keep oneself in balance and would be able to effectively combat his or her inappropriate urges.

The struggle for integration is realistically expressed by Jung (1933) when he says that a modern person is not interested in religion, but is interested in how "he is to reconcile himself with his own n a t u r e - h o w he is to love the enemy in his own heart and call the wolf his brother" (p. 237). Until this is achieved the person is not integrated.

Jung has used a very effective metaphor here to describe the con- flicted person. Another poetic metaphor has been used to describe the per- son who knows who s/he is, the integrated person. The poem is by Mari Evans (1970). It is titled "The Silver Cell." In it she speaks of never having been contained, except when she made the prison, nor having known any chains except the ones she forged. Evans concludes, "O, I am slave/and I am master . . ." (p. 18). This poem appears in the poet's collection, I A m a Black Woman.

Evans uses the paradox of the "silver" in the title with the unique "cell" of the "prison" in the poem. She juxtaposes containment and chains. She knows who forged the cha in - she did. Finally, she speaks with the

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certitude of self-knowledge. She is the slave and bound. But she is also the master and free. The poem has described an integrated person able to tolerate ambiguity in life.

TOTALITY

Totality is the summation of the other qualities of spirit that poetry therapy produces: spirituality, perception, insight, relevancy, integration, and finally, totality. Having worked toward, and momentarily achieved, a saris- lying sense of self, or integration, a person now has the energy to look beyond self into the total picture. In the 1990's we are very aware of an obligation to others, and a bondedness with them. We are also aware of our responsibilities to the earth and to the entire cosmos. Spiritual guides have t radi t ional ly held that an individual's spiritual development is measured by kindly and compassionate actions toward others and things--a totality of concern.

So too Maslow (1964) mentions that one of the consequences of the peak-experience is "the feeling of gratitude or all-embracing love for everybody and for everything, leading to an impulse to do something good for the world, an eagerness to repay, even a sense of obligation and dedica- tion" (p. 68).

When integration has been achieved, the totality of that person's force of character and breadth of concern are manifest. J. Bugental (1976), a psychotherapist, says that persons who have arrived at a greater realization of their potential show a series of changes in their feelings of concern. This change is shown in what it is that elicits concern and the form in which that concern is expressed.

Bugental, however, goes on to say that a balance is achieved between being willing to make commitments and yet having had sufficient perspective not to be overcome by reverses in any one or any group of concerns. That position reminds us of the inner awareness, the ability to make choices, the self-discipline the person who has achieved totality has exercised.

An example of such a person is painted in the poem, "The Gift," by the 1980 Nobel Prize winner, Creslaw Milosz (1981). The poet pictures a beautiful day when the fog has lifted early and he is working in the garden. As he works he talks to himself about himself. The group members respond differently to what he says. The poet says he does not want to possess anything, nor does he envy anyone else. He claims to have forgotten suf- fering at the hands of others. He even says, "To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me" (p. 51). His body feels no pain, and when he straightens up he sees "the blue sea and the sails" (p. 51).

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Mislosz paints a truly idyllic picture, but the manner of speaking is so straightforward that the group members believe him. Some members pick out items they find hard to achieve in their own lives, particularly the one about not being embarrassed at their own past. Some admire the qualities he lists, enough to discuss whether they agree they are worth the effort it would take to achieve them. The poem briefly paints a picture of a man who feels his life is of one piece. Participants are convinced that this man has achieved a totality of personhood. The members look more than once at the relationship of the title to the qualities-"The Gift." Whose gift; was it earned; who bestowed it; did he give it to himself; does a person have that power?

To find a serene poem written by a Polish survivor of World War II supports the claim that poetry is an avenue into the spirit. Creslaw Milosz has written a poem which depicts a person who has achieved a totally balanced life in spite of living through tortured years. Depending on our own self-scrutiny, we may conclude he achieved this totality either "because of" the circumstances of his life, or "in spite of" them.

SUMMARY

The very nature of poetry precludes preserving its own beauty when paraphrased. It's beauty and effectiveness lie in the poetry itself. It is indeed an avenue into the Spirit which results in the participant's heightened awareness of his or her o w n . . .

S Spirituality P Perception I Insight R Relevancy I Integration T Totality.

R E F E R E N C E S

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