Collective Poetry Writing

This exercise helps to tap into participants' creative sides, while fostering connectivity and cohesion.

This activity begins with a guided meditation. If you're hosting the meeting/class/session, you will be the leader of this exercise however, you can also participate if you would like. Ask the participants to place their feet on the ground, come forward on their chairs, and to sit up straight-- aligning their shoulders directly over their hips. If they feel comfortable, have them close their eyes, or relax their gaze. Over the next few minutes (you get to decide how much time you want to allot to this portion of the activity) guide them through a memory exploration of a specific time from their past where they remember playing. The memory could be from their childhood, or from yesterday. Ask rhetorical, exploratory questions about that specific moment in time. Utilize the senses. Ask what they saw. Ask what they felt. Ask if the sun was heating their skin or if the wind was cold. Explore the actions associated with the memory. Really lead the participants deep into the experience of play that they had. When you feel as though you've given enough time to the memory, ask them to open their eyes and come back to the room/computer.

Depending on how much time you have, you can ask the participants to take a few minutes and journal about their specific memory, asking them to focus on descriptive words, senses, and actions. After a few minutes, ask them to circle key words or phrases that really get to the essence of the memory. If you're shorter on time, have them just write those few words or phrases down that capture their memory experience. At this point in time, you can jot down your own words or phrases to contribute to the group activity.

The last portion of this activity is to have each person write their words or phrases into the chat box. Once they're all compiled you, as the moderator, will have to do a bit of quick work. In no particular order, or perhaps in the order they come in to you, write each of the words and phrases down. Then, using only those words or phrases, create a poem. BELIEVE me! This is NOT hard. Just slow down your recitation, and repeat the words back to the participants. The poem they create is unique and special to this particular group.

This activity does an amazing job of fostering creativity, slowing the brain down, focusing participants on their senses, creating group cohesion, sharing a bit of vulnerability, and reminiscing about play and fun. It's been an incredibly powerful activity in workshops I've attended and I suggest you try it out. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or ideas to make this different or more useful to you. Plus, I love hearing how these activities translate into your own virtual communities. Enjoy!