The Use of Poetry and Ritual with Troubled Adolescents

Abstract

Poetry is a way to access a dimension of being that is usually concealed. Ritual is a perennial method to make fruitful contact with that same deeper, more encompassing, dimension that inspires our humanity. Poetry and ritual are thus tools that adolescents who have lost their way and find themselves in residential treatment programs can be encouraged to learn to use to articulate and begin to alleviate their anxiety and despair in the face of alienating discourses that appear to have the power to define their selves. This article capitalizes on the popularity of the hit movie Dead Poets Society to reinforce insights into the need for a balanced education of young people that would include learning how to connect with the sacred in and around them. It also picks up where the film "Dead Poets Society" fell short and shows how participants in a ritual such as a poetry circle can and must be trained to follow specific steps that insure that no harm will come to them as a result of the activation of deep-seated energies during the meetings. A brief account of how the model was applied in the context of a psychiatric hospital for adolescents is offered.