This blog owes its existence to the
PSMW Summer School held at Lampeter in June 2009. The theme of the conference was Leadership in Turbulent Times; an account of the event is in the PSMW magazine
Catalyst, No. 16 (
download here). As the article on pp 22-23 describes, I ran a poetry workshop as a fringe event and found a wealth of creativity and enthusiasm among the participants, mainly drawn from middle management in public bodies in Wales. With that audience in mind, I argued that although poetry is often perceived as emotional, wild and unstructured, there is also a strong tradition of reflective thought and precision in expression; drawing on this latter view, I argued that writing poetry was a good discipline for managers. Using the haiku form as one which provides a structure but is highly adaptable, participants were asked to create a poem that captured a moment of insight or transformation.
This blog has been created to continue the fruitful activity of that workshop, and will host further contributions by those who have an interest in the use of poetry as a thought tool.
Martin Locock
Hi Martin, I like this thought of poetry in regard of the "changing moment". Too often poetry is regarded as clinging on to an old past, especially what the Welsh poetry is concerned if I think about it. I have come across the haiku style on a Twitter based site, 140 letters for the use of a poem. I have not used it much myself.
ReplyDeleteI think poetry can be good for anyone. I have not seen the presentation above but I will take a good look at it.
My views reflect the view of my organisation.
Kind regards, Annette
I really like the image of the wave above! Who is the artist, Martin? Yes, waves - come and go like time does and moments. All the best; must do some work now!
ReplyDeleteAnnette, l'enfant terrible ;-))