- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Kindred Spirits
- 2 Intimacy in Language
- 3 Laughter for Dessert
- 4 The Poetry of Ping-Pong
- 5 Days of Chess and Backgammon
- 6 Inventing a Language for Love
- 7 Poetry on the Porch
- 8 All My Trials
- 9 The AIDS Poets
- 10 Oh Did You See the Ashes Come Thickly Falling Down?
- 11 The POEMobile Dreams of Peace
- 12 Free Market Flavor
- 13 The Poetry in Science
- 14 Navigating Transitions
- 15 The Human Unit of Time
- 16 Your Body as Symbol
- 17 Intimations of Immortality
- 18 God Is in the Details
- 19 Breath on the Mirror
- 20 The Best Stories versus My Story
- 21 The Grease Lamp’s Flicker and Flare
- 22 Lion’s Gate
- 23 Rock and Word
- For Further Reading
- Permissions
All My Trials
All My Trials
The Healing Powers of Poems and Tales
- Chapter:
- (p.93) 8 All My Trials
- Source:
- The Poetry of Everyday Life
- Author(s):
Steve Zeitlin
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
This chapter reflects on the healing powers of poems and tales. From his family's poetry night, the author understood how poems can be used to share feelings and thoughts with loved ones, but he became interested in the role that poetry could play in getting people through hard times. The author shares an excerpt of the poem entitled The Black Sheep, inscribed on a sculpture by the performance artist Karen Finley; the concrete monolith stood in the corner park on First Street in New York City and read by homeless men and homeless women day after day. Perhaps stories and poems, like prayers, have the power to heal—or perhaps they open us to the healing power of the universe. Or perhaps they provide comfort and insight into our situations when our prayers don't work.
Keywords: healing, poems, poetry, The Black Sheep, Karen Finley, New York City, homeless, stories, prayers, comfort
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Kindred Spirits
- 2 Intimacy in Language
- 3 Laughter for Dessert
- 4 The Poetry of Ping-Pong
- 5 Days of Chess and Backgammon
- 6 Inventing a Language for Love
- 7 Poetry on the Porch
- 8 All My Trials
- 9 The AIDS Poets
- 10 Oh Did You See the Ashes Come Thickly Falling Down?
- 11 The POEMobile Dreams of Peace
- 12 Free Market Flavor
- 13 The Poetry in Science
- 14 Navigating Transitions
- 15 The Human Unit of Time
- 16 Your Body as Symbol
- 17 Intimations of Immortality
- 18 God Is in the Details
- 19 Breath on the Mirror
- 20 The Best Stories versus My Story
- 21 The Grease Lamp’s Flicker and Flare
- 22 Lion’s Gate
- 23 Rock and Word
- For Further Reading
- Permissions