We commissioned this beautiful poem in response to lockdown, all about visualising safety, growth, wellbeing and forgiveness by ETT Associate Artist Muneera Pilgrim.
Music by Mr Plexus and video editing by Craig Nom Chong.
The poem was put out in collaboration with OTR Bristol, a mental health social movement by and for young people.
Muneera also designed poetry exercises for people to try at home:
Exercise 1:
Think of a theme. Defining themes work well, for example love. Write a list of about 10-15 things that love is to you: they can be words, short sentences, phrases – but it has to be personal to you. If you get stuck, questions to think about include: how does it feel, smell, taste, sound, look? Is it real or imagined? Is it metaphorical? How does it make your body respond? Does anyone know? Is it a secret? Love is… sneaking a piece of jerk chicken out of the now browning dutch pot, yet knowing that if I was caught, it would be fine anyway.
Exercise 2:
A) freewrite for 3 minutes: no over thinking! The only rule is don’t let your pen stop. B) then another freewrite, this time focused on how you are feeling at the moment – same timeframe, 3 minutes. C) write one more freewrite focused on a material or a texture, e.g. soft, furry, thatched – again you have 3 minutes. Read back your freewrites, and pick out the lines that resonate with you the most. Gather all of those lines and order them to make an abstract poem.
Exercise 3:
Open up a poetry book at a random page, and without paying too much attention pick a line in the middle of the poem. That is the opening line of your poem! Give yourself 15 minutes to write the rest of it. If you get stuck, choose another line to add to your poem.
If you want to watch the video, go over to Watch & Listen and check it out.