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Unread 03-26-2021, 03:53 PM
Aaron Poochigian Aaron Poochigian is offline
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Default Mindfulness and Poetry

I thought some of you might be interested in this interview I did on mindfulness and poetry:

https://www.newyou.com/health/3-surp...e-mindfulness/
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Unread 03-26-2021, 08:19 PM
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Quincy Lehr Quincy Lehr is offline
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“Serenity now.... Serenity now....”
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Unread 03-26-2021, 09:25 PM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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Reciting poems to myself and mentally singing certain lines of songs have probably kept me from strangling several doctors over the years. And generally I choose verses with interesting syllabic patterns rather than cheering or calming words.
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Unread 03-27-2021, 07:19 AM
Aaron Poochigian Aaron Poochigian is offline
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I have no regrets about bringing poetry to a wider audience.
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Last edited by Aaron Poochigian; 03-27-2021 at 08:07 AM.
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Unread 03-27-2021, 10:21 AM
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Quincy Lehr Quincy Lehr is offline
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“Mindfulness” helps people... treat systemic overwork in a sociopathic economy with an eviscerated safety net as an essentially psychological problem, and the professional-managerial class to regard doing so as a sign of virtue!
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Unread 03-27-2021, 10:34 AM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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My parents spanked me for biting my nails to calm myself, in the absence of better coping mechanisms. I don't think nail-biting was the source of my problems, Quincy. I think you are similarly choosing the wrong target here.
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Unread 03-27-2021, 10:37 AM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is online now
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Even if that's accurate, Quincy, if mindfulness actually makes people feel better, it's a much more accessible palliative than fixing the sociopathic economy, so maybe it's worth practicing until your words are heeded and capitalism becomes a relic of the past. But I also think it's pretty silly to suggest that the only obstacle to peace of mind that people face is economic.
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Unread 03-27-2021, 03:49 PM
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Sarah-Jane Crowson Sarah-Jane Crowson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aaron Poochigian View Post
I have no regrets about bringing poetry to a wider audience.
And the small rippling sound is the sound of me cheering.

Because, just yes. There are various layers of arguments as to why, including ones about all arts, not just poetry, but I think (subjective) there's a particular place for poetry in letting us engage in multi-sensory experiences that aren't ours, but enable us to enter different worlds, empathise, document the world in a way that doesn't rely on big narratives, or data driven narratives. Particularly when read aloud. Poetry can be not only a small act of personal resistance but a way of sharing alt-narratives that works on a human scale.

There have been so many diversions and false binaries produced in the arts in the past, though - one of the metaphors for the landscape of poetry on here I really liked (and I can't remember who it was or where it was posted) was poetry as a 'big tent', with lots of different people writing in it. The writer shared the landscape of writing as an inclusive big tent, which was lovely. But, in reality, structures of power in writing and all arts are forming/reforming all the time. And there are lots of gatekeepers in the big tent.

So, for me, the fact that people choose to share poetry as a practice/as a thing to do/ activity outside the tent is unequivocally positive. Particularly when they might not.
Too many words.

Aaron - the choice of keeping your poetry open, not just readable, but open/open - for me, is important - because you might choose to be a gatekeeper.

Quincy Lehr, I agree that it's scary how wellbeing/mental health has been appropriated by a neo-liberal agenda.

Sarah-Jane

Last edited by Sarah-Jane Crowson; 03-27-2021 at 04:08 PM.
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Unread 03-27-2021, 07:32 PM
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Kevin Rainbow Kevin Rainbow is offline
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Unfortunately escaping into this cherrypicked "mindfulness" is usually a way of avoiding engaging in a real, serious, meaningful revolution to change the world. It's not very different from merely taking a pill and then going back to serve the same destructive forces that resulted in you needing to take the pill. We just keep having faith in the same system over and over again, while it crushes us over and over again. Then we try to use these kinds of things as damage control, over and over, further and further, due to the frequency and extent of damage caused by destructive forces we continue to serve.
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