Smith-Grisoni

Abstract

Although written as a play intended primarily for performance ‘Macbeth’ includes a great deal of poetry which connects with resounding force. The ‘poetic truth’ of the words, phrases, expressions and speeches linger long in the mind. In the article that follows Louise Grisoni expands on the transformative effects that poetry can offer. She acknowledges that poetry’s reputation can be one of inaccessibility, exclusivity, and rarification, removed from everyday life experience. However, she goes on to show that because of its compact and compressed form a telling metaphor or combination of words can say or show as much as, if not more than, a far wordier novel. Grisoni uses poetry as a form of inquiry and runs poetry-inspired workshops, perhaps as a part of an organisation’s staff development programme. She not only inspires the creation of poems that represent and speak to people’s experiences but also enquires into the meaning of the poems created. She provides a loose structure and within this encourages the use of free association, popularised by Freud and later psychoanalysts. In this article Grisoni concentrates particularly on a poetic exploration of the stated importance of a work-life balance within a change management context. Poetry workshops were offered on a voluntary basis to those who wanted them. She provides an example of a ‘collective poem’ from which images and metaphors emerge, speaking to experience. A shape and visual sense is given to strong, perhaps partially recognised, feelings. The structure rhythm, pace and tone of the poem all contribute to its impact and resonance. The article concludes that while the Government is seen to encourage employers to promote the importance of a work-life balance the lived experience is that this is often unattainable, leaving feelings of dissatisfaction and failure in its wake as it disappears, out of view and out of reach. Busy, stressed and stretched social workers and their managers will find much to relate to in this article. They may even be inspired to write something, perhaps collectively.The notion that poetry is there to be turned to in our darkest hours of greatest need is illustrated by books such as ‘The Emergency Poet: An Anti-Stress Poetry Anthology’ edited by Deborah Alma (2015, Michael O’Mara Books, London), and ‘101 Poems to get you through the day and night: A Survival Kit for Modern Life’ edited by Daisy Goodwin (2000 Harper Collins, London). An appreciation of poetry that speaks to or for us can help us to see something a little more clearly and, if we can see, anything at all, the darkness must be receding, if only a little.