Plant Them a Garden: A Work of Reflection and Poetry by Alan Anderson

 

 

This year I have the privilege of writing a series of articles for our FellowScript magazine. The articles highlight the theme of writing as healing. Since I began exploring this theme, it has cuddled its way into my heart.

 

 

My exploration of writing as healing brought me to a new love for poetry. Writing poems has been a tremendous source of comfort and healing as I recover from a personal health challenge this year. This caused me to slow life down.

 

 

2020 has taken my writing into a direction I have entertained for years but never entered. Through consultation with a few trusted writer friends, I am ready to unleash my writing beyond my previous boundaries. Poetry will be a highlight of the project I am working on now.

 

 

I like to read a wide selection of poetry as I develop this piece. This includes seventeenth-century poets like John Donne, to the intense style of Sylvia Plath, to more contemporary poets like Joshua Jordan. Poetry motivated by actual life inspires me regardless of its historical context.

 

 

My writing project for 2020/21 is a personal journey. I am dedicating it to my five grandchildren in heaven. I had been working on a fictional story to highlight the theme of grandparent grief. The more I thought of the theme, I sensed a pull toward poetry and prose and not a fictional story. I am calling this project, “Plant Them a Garden: a Work of Reflection and Poetry.”

 

 

Here are a few cursory points on what poetry means to me.

 

 

Poetry helps me listen

When I worked as a chaplain in healthcare I developed sharper listening skills than I had before. In spiritual care work the art of listening is essential. One cannot be an empathic presence without listening to people. Writing a poem helps me listen to the message within me.

 

 

 Poetry is intimate

The intimacy of poetry is what I love about it. As a poet I can get up close and personal with the words I want to convey. Poetry can be as honest and real as the poet wants it to be. Writing poetry helps slow life down and allows my thoughts to caress my mind. A slower pace helps me focus on the message of the poem.

 

 

Poetry helps me reflect on life.

I learn about myself through poetry. Poems help reveal how I interact and relate with the world. Ideas for poems run through my mind often. My poems focus on real life and touch on matters of the heart.

 

 

Poetry has purpose

There is intent and a reason behind every poem. 

Writing poetry eases the weights within me about life. My prayer is my poetry will find its way into hearts longing for peace and a pathway to hope.

 

 

Poetry has meaning

Writing poems cause me to think on a deep level about the words written. A hope I have for my poems is they will cause an emotional response in readers. I pray the messages of my poems are meaningful to my readers.

 

 

Grandparent grief is often overlooked and hidden. To see life through the eyes of grandparent grief is a unique perspective. I hope to give a voice to this hidden grief through, Plant Them A Garden: a Work of Reflection and Poetry.

 

 

Plant Them A Garden: a Work of Poetry, has been in my mind for years. I approach this project prepared to lay my soul bare with deep and personal thoughts on life. My prayer is it will be a source of comfort and healing for grandparents (and parents) who grieve the death of children they love.

 

 

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