Psychoactive Poetry:: The Quest for Ultimate Meaning Facilitator/Counselor Edition

By David Washington

This of edition Psychoactive Poetry is formatted for use as a poetry therapy and creative writing resource book. It includes an explanatory introduction providing the "intellectual and spiritual field in which [these] poems are embedded." Suggestions on how to get the best use of this poetry therapy tool are given following the introduction. The "invitation to write" at the bottom of each poem, a feature also to be found in my previous poetry therapy resource book, Hoisting a whirlwind, provides stimulating props for participants in poetry therapy sessions and work equally well for creative writing workshops. While the Hoisting collection contains poems focused on a wide array of developmental concerns principally of a emotional nature, the present collection is more concerned with 'higher' level intellectual and spiritual matters.
These poems aim to foster the search for ultimate meaning by stimulating, massaging, the 'spiritual unconscious,' as described by Viktor Frankl and others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Washington
• Release date: Aug 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9789769579262

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

The Quest for Ultimate Meaning

By

DAVID WASHINGTON

Facilitator/Counselor Edition

Copyright © 2018, 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: David Washington

Cover art: Chris Emanuel

Published by Washington Hites Publishers.

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

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/795818

Contact: [e-mail]

Telephone: [phone]

ISBN: 978-976-95792-6-2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

How to Use This Resource Book

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

Past Time

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

Introduction

This book owes a great deal to the writings of two legendary doctors of the soul.. These are Franz Fanon and Viktor Frankl. In his introduction to Black Skins, White Masks, Fanon expresses a belief that the individual should tend to take on the universality of the human condition. The poem, Phenomenology Noire, pays tribute to his heroic struggle to lay hold on that peaceful kingdom. A primary objective of my poetry therapy resource books is to foster personal development towards level of self-cognition. These developmental and clinical tools, on level one, Hoisting a Whirlwind, and the present level two collection, Psychoactive Poetry, are unique in at least two ways.

In the first place the poems in both collections are explicitly written to serve the purposes poetry therapy. Secondly, the material is culture specific and thus able to afford an enhanced degree of identification on the part of the poetry therapy participant. This, of course, is very important as identification with the character or voice in the literature therapy material being used is vital to the efficacy of the process. The fact that these publications are formatted for use as resource books for poetry therapy is a third feature highlighting their fitness to purpose. The Invitation to write which follow each poem in Hoisting… were characterized as totally wonderful exercises in an evaluation of the publication by Dr. Dale- Elizabeth Pehrsson, an expert in the fields of education and bibliotherapy.

The phrase found in the subtitle of the present collection, ultimate meaning is, borrowed from Frankl's book, Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning. In his writings, Frankl speaks of the spiritual unconscious, by which term he refers to a uniquely human capacity for spirituality that is fully a part of psychological makeup. Psychoactive Poetry is particularly adaptive as a resource in tapping this capacity in the interactive process of poetry therapy both in discussion and the creative writing exercises that have been mentioned. For example, after the poem And Furthermore, the Invitation to write asks Did we create God, or did God create us? Write a poem in which you get carried away in your yearning to know, to really know the truth about this.

The road set before a black person to taking on the universality of the human condition is arduous and long, depending upon one's starting point and disposition.

The poem, mentioned above Phenomenology Noire offers a tour guide's view of one traveler along this road. The Invitation to write at the bottom of this poem goes like this:

"In the journey through life, we all go through a lot of changes in attitudes, points of view, self-definition, that is if we live thoughtfully. This 'phenomenology of mind' gets especially complicated for African-Americans. Reflect on the changes you've