Being True to Life: poetic paths to personal growth

Psychotherapist David Richo offers a fresh and inspiring approach to personal growth: we can use the process of writing and reading poetry to move toward greater self-understanding and emotional healing. Even if you've never written a poem before, you can learn to use poetry to explore your feelings, your relationships, your childhood, your dreams, and more.

Richo explains how the creative, intuitive process of making poetry can help us gain access to our deepest truths, leading us to make connections and explore experiences in a new way, beyond the constraints of everyday language. This book offers a range of practical exercises for getting started, as well as guidance on how to read poetry in a way that can be personally transformative.

Being True to Life shows us that poetry is not reserved for a few specially talented individuals but is a deeply human activity that anyone can tap into for greater clarity and insight into life's struggles, beauty, and mysteries.

Introduction: The Healing Power of Poetry 1

What Is Poetry? 3
Mindfulness and Imagination 5
Poetry as Therapy 7
Discovering the Poet Within 12

1. Discovering Your Truth 15
Finding Your Authentic Voice 16
Becoming a Fair and Alert Observer 19
Exercises: Getting Started with Poetry 21

2. Writing the Poems Inside You 25
Guidelines for Creating Poetry for Growth and Healing 25
The Oomph of Images 38
Exercises: Working with Images 40
Sharing Your Poems with Others 41

3. Healing the Past 43
Introduction to the Visualizations 44
Visualization: Renewing Childhood 46
Exercise: Journaling in Poetry 50
Additional Exercises for Using Poetry to Heal the Past 53
The Making of a Healing Poem, Step-by-Step 53

4. Learning to Let Go 65
Visualization: Opening Ourselves 66
To Think or to Imagine 68
Imagination and Personal Expansion 71
Exercises: Unfolding Your Imagination 73

5. Facing Life’s Emotional Challenges 77
Fear 78
Loneliness 81
Depression 83
Addiction 86
Childhood Trauma 88
Relationship Concerns 91

6. Poetry and Spirituality 95
Synchronicity 96
Visualization: Allowing What Wants to Happen 98
Poetry and Nature 101
Visualization: Seasons and Transitions 105
Poetry and the Transcendent 108
Freedom from Division 111
Exercises: Three Practices 113
Stillness and Movement 114

7. Reading Poetry for Growth and Healing 117
Why Are Some Poems So Hard to Understand? 119
Prose and Poetry, Mind and Heart 125
Three Poetic Styles 130
Original and Familiar 133
Pleasure in the Words 135
Messages in Poetry 141
Helpful Suggestions for Reading Poetry 145
Lectio Divina 147
Exercise: A Spiritual Approach to Reading Poetry 150


Epilogue: Our Evolutionary Calling to Poetry153
Appendix: Sample Poems 155
About the Author 159