Psychoactive Poetry: Poetry Therapy Meditations on the Quest for Ultimate Meaning

By David Washington

Psychoactive poetry is prejudiced in favor of vigorous and decidedly honest rationality. Psychoactive Poetry is suffused with a liquid color somewhere between blue and green. Call it blue. Call it green. Call it yellow, if you like me like yellow. I aims for a smooth distillation of verbal gymnastics catalyzed by the rashly discredited religious impulse. "To be religious", in the view of Albert Einstein, "is to have found an answer to the question, What is the meaning of life." The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein held that "to believe in God is to see that life has a meaning." The renowned psychiatrist Viktor Frankl taught that the "will to meaning" is the "most human of human phenomena." He viewed religion as "the fulfillment of the will to ultimate meaning." The meditations in this poetry therapy resource book are offered with thoughts like these in mind. Psychoactive Poetry is rap city in blue light, a "head book" and hopefully, to quote John Coltrane, "a force for good" in your search for ultimate meaning in life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Washington
• Release date: Mar 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9789769579248

David Washington

David Washington holds a B. A. degree in Psychology and M. A. degree in Anthropology, the interface of culture and personality being the focus of his research and study. Throughout the years he has pursued a persistent interest, both as a writer and self-help enthusiast, in the efficacy of literature as an agent of personal development. His literature therapy publications are an outgrowth of this enthusiasm and an interest as a writer in art as for something more than its own sake.

Book preview

PSYCHOACTIVE POETRY

POETRY THERAPY MEDITATIONS ON

THE QUEST FOR ULTIMATE MEANING

DAVID WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON HITES PUBLISHERS * BELIZE

https://www.bibliotherapypublications.net

Copyright © 2017, by David Washington

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Cover concept and design: D. Washington

Cover art: Chris Emanuel

Published by Washington Hites Publishers.

P. O. Box 135, Dangriga, Belize, Central America.

https://www.bibliotherapypublications.net

Contact: [e-mail]

Telephone: [phone]

ISBN 978-976-95792-4-8

EAN 9789769579248

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Psychoactive poetry

Speaking of tongues

Emancipating Proclamations

Know myself

A Determined Quest

Hubris

Nothing but

And furthermore

In God we (should) trust

Phenomenologie Noire

Light at the end of the passage

View from the red veranda

Pax Divina

Apocalypse Wow!

Time well-spent

Behavior failure

Turning point

Peace and rumors of peace

New World state of mind

Moment of truth

Pastime

The good young days are back

Watchman

Shinning eternally

Life in real life

The coming paradise

Listen

The side effects of Psychoactive Poetry

Appendix A: A conversation with Don Mizell on Psychoactive Poetry

Appendix B: Bibliotherapy Short Stories series

Selected Bibliography

An Additional poetry therapy resource book

About the Author

Preface

What is Truth? The easy and generally preferred answer in our time is something to the effect that truth is relative. You got yours, I got mine. More broadmindedly, in some respects, some would prefer the false modesty of the notion that the Truth cannot be known by mere mortals. Neither view, while perhaps satisfying the need for meaning for many, if not most people, satisfies the search for ultimate meaning for no one genuinely inclined by innate disposition to grope after something more solid than the tragic guesses of a tired or retired consciousness. Psychoactive poetry is prejudiced in favor of a more vigorous and decidedly more honest rationality. Psychoactive poetry is suffused with a liquid color, somewhere between blue and green. Call it blue. Call it green. Call it yellow if you, like me, like yellow. It aims for an unbiased distillation of verbal gymnastics catalyzed by the, rashly discredited, religious impulse. It, consequentially, condenses distillates worth rhyming for late at night. Call it rap city in blue light.

To be religious, according to Albert Einstein, is to have found an answer to the question, What is the meaning of life? For philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, to believe in God is to see that life has a meaning. The renowned psychiatrist Viktor Frankl viewed the will to meaning as the most human of all human phenomena and saw religion as the fulfillment of the will to ultimate meaning. The meditations herein are composed with thoughts like these in mind. It is not a handbook, but a headbook and hopefully, a force for good, to quote John Coltrane, in the lives of fellow seekers.

David Washington,

B. A., Psychology, Colby College

M. A. Anthropology, Howard University

PSYCHOACTIVE POETRY

Dream weaving is a risky business,

It being so easy to get carried away and pursue

Myriads of impulses and write so as to risk

Not naturally following the thread of logic’s due.

Dream weaving favors, instead, whatever surfaces

Spontaneously in a head full of alternative renderings,

Such that one finds oneself far too easily surrendering,

To what at best has little to do with what the flow purposes.

So it is that things need a plan,