Last year I studied on the Professional Writing Academy’s Therapeutic and Reflective Writing course. It was an excellent addition to my MSc in Psychology in Education, bridging this with my writing tuition. The staff were lovely and supportive as I’ve come to expect from PWA.
This session was about Biblio-Poetry Therapy and writing in response to poetry. We were asked to pick a specific line from a poem and then use it to express our experiences. I chose the poem Snowbound, by Natasha Lynne Vodges (Vodges, 1980):
“As I’ve mentioned before in this course I think I’m finding a new respect and appreciation for the role of poetry in a writer’s life, if not a reader’s. In a way, the simple language, structure, or meaning can allow for a moment of reflection and thought. Prose has a profoundly different effect on me. And I think I can now find space for both of them.
I found both poems interesting, but it was Snowbound that really stood out to me.
In my reflection I noticed that I longed for a moment. I was looking out at the rain from this coffee shop and thinking that I never stop. Even when I’m in bed my mind is racing. It could be my ADHD, but I also worry that if I ever stop, I’ll never get started again. Be that writing, social life, or life in general. Perhaps a time to be snowbound is what I need. To speak to myself and find myself again. I could talk more about that, but I think the reflection should hold some personal significance too, and maybe my poem will give more insight. So without further ado… (it’s not a poem unless it rhymes, right? 😅)
- A time to refuel yourself
- A time to be kind
- A time to think or your health
- You never know what you will find
- When you find you can’t stop
- Give yourself time as a task
- There doesn’t always need to be plot
- But yourself for help you may ask
- A time to be snowbound
- That’s what’s important here
- In life, time must be found
- Or beyond our reach it goes, I fear
Thank you for reading”
You can check out the course for yourself here: https://www.profwritingacademy.com/course/therapeutic-and-reflective-writing
Dr Mike Hollows/M.J. Hollows - Author/Lecturer 