Trauma healing and the extraordinary hidden power of poetry

The time has come to address the driving force behind Catherine Hannah Poetry- that is, the concept of poetry as a tool for trauma healing. Of course, I do not advocate for poetry as some sort of singular miracle cure for universal affliction. I do however believe that, when explored alongside medical intervention and other therapies, poetry offers a unique method of expressing our deepest feelings surrounding trauma and the recovery process- thoughts we may keep hidden even from ourselves.

navigating change

After the car crash that left me with a broken neck and brain injury (and later diagnoses of Post Concussion Syndrome and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), I was advised to try journalling as a way to externalise my turbulent thoughts. I don’t want to diminish this widely used practice- but it wasn’t for me. I would pour out sentence fragments in a stream of consciousness. A sudden purge. Word vomit. I couldn’t spend any time organising my thoughts- they were far too confronting. It helped a little in that moment but if I tried to reread them later, it either disturbed me again or simply made no sense.

To facilitate minor trauma healing in years gone by, I’ve used song writing as a way of bringing my thoughts to the surface. I would sit at the piano and relish the process of joining melody, chord progression and lyrics. Others may start with the lyrics or the music, but I’ve always enjoyed watching the song evolve holistically. The snag now: I was physically unable to sit at the piano for longer than 10 minutes, let alone focus on three different elements at once. Even adapting by writing the lyrics and then the music would eventually involve the two aspects of playing and singing at the same time. I did not/ do not have the attention span for that.

I decided to focus on the lyrics, or- poetry. There are debates as to what differentiates poetry, prose and song lyrics. To me, it’s not something tangebile. Perhaps poetry has a certain musicality to it that differentiates it from prose and doesn’t require music to make it sing. I wrote my first healing poem, My Therapy, on 14th May 2021, almost a year after the crash. It proudly appears on page 15 of The Ballad of the Bunny and Other Poems: The Diary of a Car Crash and Beyond.

Later -having made the decision to publish my poetry collection- I began the painful task of exploring the journal entries I made during the first year of my recovery. It was one of the most liberating exercises of my life.

creative trauma healing: my personal project approach

Both song writing and composing poetry offer a major difference to journalling and it is here that I believe the power of creative trauma healing lies. (For ease of reading I will refer hereon out to poetry only, though much of the following applies equally to song writing).

Writing a poem allows me to turn my feelings into a project. I am less focussed on the feelings themselves, instead concentrating on syllables, rhyme scheme and meter. This creates a distance between myself and the challenging concepts/ feelings. Once I have a product I am proud of, I can reread the poem and re experience those same feelings in a way that is now structured and organised in a way that makes sense to me.

I can also refer back to my poems at a later date and they still make sense as a readable, feelable snapshot of my emotional self at the time of writing. This allows me to monitor the progress of the trauma healing operation.

Whilst I enjoy writing free verse (poetry without consistent metre, syllable count etc), I find that striving to meet the guidelines of different poetry forms furthers this ‘project’ approach. Whilst other writers may find this constraining, I prefer to view the rules of poetic form as the hands that contain and cradle my challenging emotions and memories. The boundaries become my focus until I’m ready to address what’s inside.

a sneak peak at form

What do I mean by poetry forms? I will divulge here that I’m not completely new to poetry. I studied poetry as part of my Drama and Imaginative Writing degree at Liverpool John Moore’s University. However, since graduating in 2007 my interest had lain dormant. I recalled what I could and the internet provided the rest. Below is a quick introduction to the forms I enjoy most.

Haiku. Originating in Japan, the Haiku is made up of three lines- The first line has 5 syllables, the second has 7 and the final line has 5. Traditionally, the haiku exlpores nature and natural themes.

Tanka. Another Japanese form, the Tanka has 5 lines of 5,7,5,7,7 syllables respectively.

Sonnet. Often associated with Shakespear, the sonnet is made up of 14 lines altogether. The rhyme scheme of the first 12 lines are as follows: ABABCDCDEFEF. The sonnet concludes with two lines (GG) otherwise known as a rhyming couplet. This couplet may offer a conclusion or alternatively, a ‘twist’ to the earlier lines. Each line contains 10 syllables of iambic pentametre- the emphasis falls on the second syllable and alternative syllables thereafter.

Villanelle. I find meeting the intricate requirements of the villanelle most satisfying of all. This French form of poem consists of 19 lines- 5 tercets (stanzas of 3 lines), ending with a quatrain (4 line stanza). Lines 1, 6, 12 and 18 are the same; lines 3,9,15 and 19 are the same- and all of these lines rhyme. Lines 2,5, 8, 11, 14 and 17 all rhyme. The rhyme scheme is therefor: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA.

There are many, many more forms of poetry. A more exhaustive list can be found here– I’ll let you know when I give some of these a go! It may also be said that rules are made to be broken. Or at least tweaked. For example, I started writing my poem Barbara in sonnet form, but felt that 14 lines didn’t do her story justice. By splitting the traditional 14 lines into 5 quatrains with a rhyming couplet conclusion (a total of 22 lines) I was able to express what I wanted to.

(N.B. Although I identified with the titular character’s story, it was not my story. Perhaps this is why I felt less reliant on the rules as a safety net? Interesting- I’d not pondered that until today).

trauma healing is no fairy tale

Rediscovering a love of poetry has given me a freedom of expression I never thought was possible. For some time, I couldn’t even narrate the events of that day without becoming distressed-even if I didn’t look it. Instead, I used allegory to bring my story to life in camouflage; citing the woeful tale of a rabbit who is unintentionally injured by an impatient visitor to her house. A consistent rhyme scheme and fairy tale tone provided focus to my ‘project’. Six months and seven poems after I first embraced poetry for trauma healing, The Ballad of the Bunny was born. I used this poem to form the title of the whole collection, as afterall- this is where it all began.

by Catherine Hannah, April 2024

I would like to make it clear that the above is purely a testimonial of my experience of embracing poetry as a tool for trauma healing. I am not a medical professional in any way! I would like to reiterate my thoughts from the opening paragraph- I believe poetry can be a useful support alongside medical intervention and other therapies.