Eight Events for Entering a PhD: A Poetic Inquiry Into Happiness,Humility,and Self-Care

Abstract

These two poetry clusters comprised a total of eight poems that offer (a) reflective, “past” event poetry and (b) hopeful “humbling” event pieces for future use. Inspired by scholarship examining novice academics’ emotions upon entering graduate school, each poem outlines a potential path to accessing happiness, humility—an especially important quality in graduate school, particularly while writing—and ideas for self-care. As such, through poetic inquiry, which encourages “poetic living,” this article offers avenues for engaging with authorial voice through “vox autobiographia/autoethnographia,” to confront emotional “messiness,” with a “tender” poetic approach.