Paying attention, purposefully, in the only time you have to live, the present moment ~ Kabat-Zinn
From the first moment I began to explore MBSR and MBCT I found the inclusion of poetry fascinating. My first thought was that Jon Kabat-Zinn must simply love poetry. I never had that confirmed but it still seems true to me.
My other thought was that prose is like problem-solving. It has a subject and an action, the verb, where the subject is going. Prose is very useful, practical. What would we do without all that careful planning that goes into a sentence, a paragraph, an article in the newspaper?
But, there is a problem, or maybe a dilemma, since problem seems a bit too judgemental. Prose has a kind of closed-in quality, a figuring things out to come up with an answer. What poetry gives us is opening, observation, non-judgemental, mindful observation. It often has an “awe” quality.
Okay, I have made some snap judgements here. It isn’t that one is good and the other bad. It is that we use prose the most. Like mindfulness, poetry gives us another way into our minds, into experience – an exploration without the goal of there being one answer. So, exploring the connections between mindfulness and poetry is a gift. We don’t have to come up with one answer but take it as an opportunity for being present with the exploration. As Rumi reminds us it is a “Guesthouse” full of arrivals.
Please feel free to share your poems and thoughts about poetry and mindfulness. We can share our wisdom.
Kate Kitchen, M.S.W., R.S.W. is a registered social worker, with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. She has been providing individual, couple, family and group psychotherapy since receiving her M.S.W. from Ohio State University in 1980. Kate began leading Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) groups at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in 2000 and led mindfulness professional trainings beginning in 2002. She participated in the writing of a number of professional papers, including the topic of mindfulness. Kate has been in private practice, now part-time, since 2010. Kate is also a visual artist and poet. She is a photographer and tapestry weaver.
Mindfulness Toronto Welcomes Kate Kitchen for an Evening of Mindful Poetry
July 12th 2023, 7pm – 8pm