‘A poem is a Galaxy’: An Educational Guide for Researchers New to Using Participant-Voiced Poetry with Young People

Abstract

Whilst poetic methods are increasingly employed in research, few papers clearly guide those new to the method particularly when considering the unique needs of utilising it with young people. This paper addresses this absence by presenting a clear guide to the rationale and benefits of using participant-voiced poetry. Whilst not prescriptive, this guide hopes to encourage and inspire researchers by offering three diverse methods of engagement with participant-voiced poetry using case studies as exemplars. Arising from a collaborative two-day co-creation workshop, a team of expert researchers, which included two practitioners of poetic inquiry methods, three educators, an artist and a young person, developed a route map to guide researchers new to poetic inquiry with young people. This route map provides a detailed and clear visual explanation of the application of this method, broken down into steps to provide detailed explanation, with the aim of helping researchers navigate participant-voiced poetry with young people. The processes detailed are iterative, collaborative, led by poetic expertise and the research literature around eliciting and analysing participant-voiced poetry. The reporting of this process is further enhanced through the inclusion of a young person’s lived experience of this method. This paper is intended to support researchers across disciplines, particularly researchers new to poetic inquiry and/or using these methods with young people. While the paper centres on the application of these methods for research involving young people, it is envisaged that these methods and the route map provided will be more widely beneficial to other age groups.

Keywords

young people poetic inquiry participant-voiced poetry creative qualitative research methods advisory group ‘patient and public involvement’

Introduction

This paper provides a route map for researchers new to participant-voiced poetry with young people. Our article offers new and innovative approaches to engage the perspectives of young people through collaborative participant-voiced poetic methods. Poetic methods are widely understood to support participants to express challenging or sensitive experiences, provide opportunities for collaborative listening and enhance researcher interpretation of findings (Curtiss et al., 2025; Owton, 2017; Sparkes, 2020; Vincent, 2022). Whilst young people’s perspectives and experiences risk being lost with some conventional qualitative methods; the literature details that creative approaches can be effective in engaging these perspectives. We share examples from our own research as exemplar’s. Author one (MC) poetic inquiry research explores the experiences of refugee and asylum-seeking families in children’s palliative care, using both participant-created and advisory group-created poetic methods to aid participant expression. When using the term ‘advisory group’, we refer to Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement – those with lived experience or expertise of the phenomena under study. Author two (LW) research centres on the experiences of living with endometriosis, using co-created poetic methods with participants both individually and in groups. The aim of sharing our learning of poetic research methods is to help others navigate the challenges we faced and draw on the techniques we found useful.

Poetry in Research

The many words and phrases chosen by researchers to describe the use of poetry in research activities fall under the umbrella term ‘poetic inquiry’. Broadly speaking, poetic inquiry might be described as “the use of poetry crafted from research endeavours, either before a project analysis, as a project analysis, and/or poetry that is part of or that constitutes a research project” (Faulkner, 2019, p. 14).

A relatively new methodology within qualitative research, poetic inquiry has been gaining popularity as an arts-based research approach. As such, advocates of poetic inquiry have worked to theorise the methodology. Prendergast reports three main categories of poetic inquiry projects: vox theoria – literature-voiced poems that are poetic responses to works of literature or theory; vox autobiographia – researcher-voiced poems, perhaps written from fieldnotes or journals; and vox participare – participant-voiced poems (Prendergast et al., 2009, p. xxii). The third of these – vox participare – forms the focus of this methodological paper. Participant-voiced poems are often directly written from interview transcripts or solicited from participants (ibid). As this paper explores, this category of poems can be written by a researcher, participant, or another person such as an advisory group member and can be done as a solitary endeavour or collaboratively. The key aspect is that participant-voiced poetry is written from the perspective of participants.

Rationale

Poetic inquiry is presented as a way to handle complexity (Görlich, 2016) allowing for different and more complex understandings of experiences that can result in “deeper understanding of how human motivation and experience influences many aspects of life” (Haberlin, 2017, p. 211). The examples from both poetic researchers in this paper, relate to experiences of illness from marginalised perspectives. Elements of sorrow and/or grief related to health conditions may be hard to describe and complicated by perplexity (Brennan, 2020; Gilmour et al., 2020). Within experiences of pain and illness, sensory elements may also be challenging to express through traditional research methods alone (Chan, 2012; Liamputtong et al., 2008) or when participants’ first language is not English (Boden et al., 2018).

Poetic inquiry has been said to draw listeners closer to the lived experiences of participants by its aesthetic evocation (Casey et al., 2015). Such methods can encourage insightful metaphoric verbal descriptions (Boden et al., 2018), as well as the inclusion of the minute particulars of experience and thus additional linguistic details (Clary, 2010). Examples of the power of poetic inquiry are highlighted by Killick (1997), whose research participants with Alzheimer’s disease spoke of their confusion and panic, and described life before and after the disease using metaphoric and sensual language. Participant accounts were translated into poetry, emphasising their resilience, wit, insight and creativity and challenging previous assumptions that people with Alzheimer’s lose such characteristics (Killick, 2005). Further, in Featherstone & Sandfield’s (2013) study, participant poetry about epileptic seizures supported professionals’ understanding of the condition. The in-depth temporal descriptions within this study included insightful perceptions of participants’ experiences. For example, participants shared details of their altered awareness, consciousness and bodily sensations during a seizure. These aspects were thought to help understanding of ‘what it was like’ to live with the condition and thus help make sense of the complex and often interconnected, sensory elements of epilepsy (Featherstone & Sandfield, 2013).

Poetic methods may further address the concerns of qualitative research that interpretations offered are only the opinions of researchers (Willig, 2008). An integral part of participant-voiced poetry is a focus on linguistic aspects of participant exact responses, promoting active listening and focusing on participants’ responses more intensely. The nuances of the language used by participants can inform dialogue and allow further time for clarification regarding accuracy of interpretation. For example, in MC research one of the participants described his relationship with his daughter’s nurses, stating that they should not ‘shine a torch on the refugee’. While most qualitative researchers would have noticed this image and asked for clarification of meaning, the utilisation of poetic methods allowed the researcher and participant to devote more time to interrogating this phrase. Here, the phrase related to the participant’s experience of discrimination and discussion supported him to express feelings of injustice at the way he had been treated. As such, the additional dialogue within poetic inquiry can help researchers to challenge, refute and further understand the meaning-making of participants, as well as add further layers of analysis and interpretation to their qualitative research.

Historically, young people’s voices have been marginalised as adults (such as researchers, parents, teachers, and health professionals) often dominate family and young people’s research (Alderson, 2001; Christensen & Prout, 2002; Hood et al., 1996). Congruently, traditional methods have largely been set aside in favour of creative and participatory methods through a rationale of empowerment and voice (Punch, 2002). Whilst such assertions are overstated (ibid), the use of these creative and participatory methods may propose a different relationship between the researcher and young person founded on more collaborative, attentive and reciprocal principles. Since poetic inquiry may welcome and embody the complexity of experience then it can be considered a useful form to support young people to create, convey and complicate understandings through their perspectives on various issues. Participant-voiced poetry in particular prioritises attending to young persons’ perspectives in the research process.

Eldén (2013) highlights the benefits of creative methods as democratic practice: these methods give time to create knowledge and reflect. As the creation and interpretation of poetry encourages taking time and deliberating, it may be seen to fit with these democratic principles. These principles are further reinforced in the poetic inquiry method described in this paper in terms of the choices offered to the young person over forms of participation: collaborative or independent; creative, interpretive, or evaluative.

The engagement with young people’s perspectives extends to encouraging them to engage with their emotive selves since poetry is ‘unapologetically emotive and evocative’ (Fitzpatrick & Fitzpatrick, 2020, p. 9). These two verses from the poem ‘Why I use a poem in every single classroom’ by Selina Tusitala Marsh, the New Zealand poet laureate (2017-2019), highlights key advantages in ‘using’ poetry with young people.

A poem is a galaxy

infinitely interpretable

from every vantage point

as we asteroid along its lines.

[…]

A poem is an elevator

people get on and off

at different levels.

Some prefer the stairs.

That’s ok.

They don’t realise

that poems are also stairs,

that what is up is down.

It’ll be our secret.

Selina Tusitala Marsh (2020)

While Tusitala Marsh’s poem specifically applies to poetry in a classroom space, this method is not rooted to this space. Indeed, we approach the details of this research in terms of working with young people outside of the formal classroom space, which would entail significantly different considerations.

The poetic lens in which to see data is relatively new, alternate and complex (Souter, 2005; Sparkes et al., 2003). Within our experience, poetry offered an opportunity to avoid using snippets and small portions of direct quotes and instead give a more complete account of participants’ experiences. However, the creation of poems can be a difficult technique to master and might create anxiety for the researcher and/or participant. As such we outline how to build confidence within poetic methods and steps which may be taken to ensure successful implementation.

Whilst authors such as Glesne (1997) and Featherstone and Sandfield (2013) have offered guidance for taking interview transcripts through to poetic creation, little has been discussed regarding the specifics of young people’s involvement in poetic inquiry or the use of advisory groups to offer further representation. Specifically, the field lacks a clear route map for researchers to use participant-voiced poetry in their work. We thus provide a visual overview of how to conduct poetic inquiry (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Route Map for Participant-Voiced Poetry With Young People

Method

To create the route map detailed in Figure 1, a collaborative group co-creation workshop of cross-disciplinary researchers and educators with interest and expertise in young people’s research and poetic inquiry was convened. Members of this group were chosen for their expertise with young people in qualitative research (MC, RFH, AM), sociological perspectives (GR) use of poetic research methods with young people in differing capacities (MC, LW), visual representations via illustrations (KH) and a young person from a hospital youth advisory group with personal experience of using poetic methods in research studies (BD). This two-day collaborative event was immersive and iterative with steps discussed alongside research literature and current methodological debate. The workshop was funded by an Impact and Engagement Award from the Children and Young People’s Network, University of Exeter to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and chaired by author (MC). It was held in person to encourage reciprocal involvement and the full inclusion of (BD) as advisory group member. Two researchers with experiences of using differing poetic inquiry methods enabled the construction and identification of the commonalities of how poetic inquiry is conducted.

The possible steps of poetic inquiry were discussed in the workshop and in collaboration with illustrator KH the route map was created as a visual resource. These steps are not intended as a rigid step-by-step process but are numbered to offer a logical, easy to follow guide for researchers to begin exploring three possible approaches to participant voiced poetry with young people. Drawing on our experiences, we also offer evidence-based debate alongside narrative case studies for clarity.

Preparation

Researcher Readiness, Skills and Confidence

One barrier to starting poetic inquiry is the confidence of researchers in using poetry. Poetic methods are qualitative methods demanding self-conscious participation (Brady, 2009 p. xii) and attention to the quality of work (Cutts & Billye Sankofa Waters, 2019). From this perspective, poetic methods call on many existing skills and practices and can be used by qualitative researchers who feel their projects would benefit from the inclusion of more expressive and evocative methods (Cutts & Billye Sankofa Waters, 2019). Thus, researchers with little poetic experience can do this type of research. A qualitative research methodology, poetry ‘as/in/for research’ (Faulkner, 2019, p. 16) involves many of the processes of other qualitative methodologies, including recruitment, interviewing and data analysis. What might deter ‘non-poets’ is the sense of the difficult or ‘unknown’ in poetry that complicates the research process or excludes novice poets.

Demystifying poetry is a key part of preparation: research poetry aims to offer accounts which are unintimidating, accessible and may differ from more traditional poetic forms. Crucially, Faulkner (2009) aims to combat perceptions ‘that poetry is too difficult to use as research, that only poets should be concerned with poetic craft, and that the creation and evaluation of poetry is too mysterious’ (p. 9). Asking that poetry meets a certain standard of poetic merit or pinning it down with questions of its form may risk limiting opportunities for examination, as Lahman explores in the research poem 101 (2018, pp. 215–6).

Research Poetry 101

I want to help them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive,

but I am unsure I know how.

I’d say drop a mouse into a poem

but I’m uncertain if I can show it how

to probe her way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room

but what if we fumble for the light switch?

I want them to ski the Colorado Rockies

across the surface of data poems

waving at the research participants on the lift

without crashing.

I think maybe

then their

poems will

refract,

Reflect,

hum,

buzz,

prod,

explore,

illuminate,

burn,

slalom,

Shhhs.

But all we do

is tie the research poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

“I am not poetry”!

We begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.

“I am research poetry”?

To help demystify poetry, researchers can adopt the concept of the ‘poemish’: research representations which are ‘poem-like’ or poetic in character (Lahman et al., 2018). From the ‘poemish’ point of view, a willingness to engage is vital in terms of examination, play, experimentation, and analysis of language, form, and structure. An active interest in elements of poetic form and craft is thus a more desirable attribute of a would-be research poet than extensive knowledge of the poetic canon or an ability to write a villanelle, say.

That said, this paper’s authors agree that studying poetry may be helpful in terms of researcher preparedness and confidence. Reading, writing, and reflecting on poetry prior to researching with participants is recommended as a key stage of the process. The authors of this paper have compiled a list of books and resources for researchers new to research poetry (see Supplemental File).

Understanding the Research Focus and Young Participants

Concerns about lack of expertise may affect participants. Therefore, it is important to consider how the presence of poetry – or creativity – might impact the way participants feel about, and interact with, the research process. It is crucial that researchers embarking upon poetic methods ask: How well do these methods suit my prospective participants? This question can be considered broadly in the context of the literature set out in this paper. However, a more concentrated analysis of the types of poetry used in research methods – the poetic exercises you might use with participants, for example – can be undertaken in dialogue with the resources and readings cited above and in the Supplemental File.

Further, as research involving the participation of young people, we suggest careful consideration of their potential needs including, though not limited to, language, culture, and safe spaces/settings and that considerations are reflected in the logistical planning of the research (Table 1).

Table 1.

Logistical and Planning Considerations

- Researcher time and budget

Additional time and budget may be necessary to ensure the success of poetic research methods. For example, we encourage poetic researchers to consider piloting their methods and offering further, perhaps individual, meetings to allow time and space for reflections with participants. Prior to the first research or formal meeting we would also encourage researchers to hold informal meetings to build and establish rapport with participants as this will offer opportunities to talk about the rationale for the project and methods used, answer any questions and allow time for the researcher to understand any adaptations needed whilst building trust. Additionally, trusted individuals’ participation (such as family, charity or healthcare professionals) may be reassuring for some participants and so this may also need to be planned for

- Remuneration for participants

When engaging with advisory groups or community/charitable organisations and asking participants to give their time (which may involve more than one engagement with a researcher), we recommend considering a fair payment scheme into research planning and funding applications. For example, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) offers guidance (https://www.nihr.ac.uk/payment-guidance-researchers-and-professionals) on remuneration rates for patient and public involvement which offers a standardised approach for researchers to utilise

- Ethical considerations

As with all research studies, ethical considerations should remain at the heart of all research stages. As well as issue in common with all research, poetic inquiry means considering issues around power, accessibility, ownership, and the potential affective toll and benefits of engaging with poetry. Moreover, research involving children and young people has additional ethical requirements that need careful consideration and to which there is a wide body of relevant literature

- Positionality and reflexivity

The roles researchers play, and their own influence, values and beliefs may all influence interactions with participants and should therefore be considered and where conflict may arise mitigated against

Introduction

Building Rapport

Building rapport is crucial to the success of poetic research particularly participant comfort and engagement given the expectation that they will be required to be ‘creative’ and ‘write poetry’, which may feel daunting. Working with a researcher with whom they are already familiar can help participants feel more at ease, especially in the early stages of research. Initial interactions can help with familiarity and support participants’ ability to ask questions and raise concerns. For example, LW described her project at a support group meeting, inviting audience questions. When a group member said, ‘I’m no good at poetry’ she could provide reassurance that no poetic skill or experience was needed – just a willingness to tell their story.

Building rapport is key to many elements that make up good poetic research, facilitating the formation of advisory groups and networks and allowing the design to be collaboratively shaped with the research questions and participants in mind. Furthermore, rapport empowers the researcher-participant relationship, encouraging trust and understanding of one another’s role and expertise. This rapport extends to relationships between the researcher and: their research group; organisations/professionals who can advise them; those with lived experience; and individual participants to cultivate ideal conditions for poetic co-creation.

During the first meeting with participants, it is important to introduce the project, provide a clear rationale for the use of poetry to participants and explain the aims and research questions of the project. It may be further helpful to share the type of poetry creation and interpretation to be used (independent, collaborative and/or advisory group) and expected time scales, to understand research expectations. Participants should be given options for their engagement with poetic methods: individually or collaboratively; online or face-to-face. Researchers need to be reasonably accessible so that participants can ask questions at any stage of the process and to provide reassurance as necessary. Considerations include giving participants time to read and reflect on information detailing the research project and encouraging their engagement with – and possible editing of – consent forms. Particularly in research with young people, the images and text to convey this information need to be considered carefully. The young people’s advisory group we consulted expressed the need for information to be given early, using visually stimulating methods and co-produced methodology where possible.

Interview

Key to the success of collaborative poetry-creation is a well-planned conversation. The format of this conversation, its duration and location will need to be adapted to suit participants needs. The conversation should be participant-led, following a semi-structured schedule, where conversation points and open questions are designed to open conversation around a broad topic of focus. Questions which focus on language can be helpful, for example: Are there any words or phrases that have stayed with you from experiences/encounters/interactions with… (individuals; institutions etc.)? Such questions facilitate the focus on the different and layered perspectives that impact participants’ experiences and may be useful therefore for writing the poem(s).

Example

Within LW’s project she found certain aspects helped her participants to collaboratively create poetry, including the provision of notebooks for participants to make notes during and after their research interviews. LW found that some participants wrote poetry in their notebooks outside of the interview which they shared with her during subsequent meetings. Within each research meeting LW made time to type up and edit these poems with participants, creating more research poems than originally anticipated.

Furthermore, open-ended prompts such as Tell me about a time… were helpful to allow participants to decide which aspects of the experience they wanted to focus upon. LW noticed that some participants expressed worry at not ‘properly’ answering her questions and she reassured them that her questions were intended as prompts for participants to discuss whatever was most important to them. Participants seemed more relaxed knowing there was no ‘proper’ way to answer questions. Time for reflection at the end of interviews was important in giving participants opportunity to reflect on their responses. In her research, LW supported a young participant to share her thoughts on the impact of menstrual discourse on lived experience of endometriosis. This was the point in the interview at which the participant connected her personal experience to broader social concerns, such as the pathologising of menstruation, and asserting changes (for example, better menstrual education in schools) for endometriosis experiences to be improved.

Researcher Engagement with Interview Transcript

A vital stage of the collaborative poetry-creation method involves researcher engagement with the interview transcript. This engagement must take place prior to the first poetry-creation session with the participants and enables the researcher to become familiar with the transcript to facilitate focused discussion. LW found reading the transcript helpful to identify recurring themes, for example, ‘school’ or ‘parents’. Themes can then be recorded in a separate document and referred to in the poetry-creation session. Noting page references for any themes is useful, for example, if a participant wishes to write a poem about how their condition affects their schooling, notes will help the researcher find the relevant parts of the transcript. Additionally, making notes in the margin of the transcript can help with signposting to particular themes, topics, or phrases. However, annotation should be minimal and non-judgemental/non-analytical as the purpose of this approach is to aid familiarity with, and navigation of, the transcript only.

Finally, writing a summary of themes covered in the interview to relay to participant(s) if they are unable to remember what they spoke about can be valuable. LW found some participants needed reminding before they could speak about which topics covered in the interview were most important to them.

Poetry Creation and Interpretation

There are many different methods for research poetry creation and interpretation. Here, we share three methods we have used, highlighting our process and learning.

In choosing a method, it is crucial to consider the skills and experience of participants. For example, if participant(s) are comfortable writing poetry themselves and then sharing with the researcher, this method of poetic inquiry would be least intrusive. Writing poetry may be new and daunting so providing prompts, tips, imagery and examples is helpful. We thus suggest techniques for enabling participants to write independently but also collaboratively. Some young people may not want to be actively involved in poetry writing but happy for an advisory group member with relevant lived experience to write something from their experiences – as detailed in their interview transcript – and may enjoy reviewing their poem and discussing others’ interpretations.

Next, we outline three approaches to poetic inquiry: (A) independent poetry creation and collaborative interpretation; (B) collaborative poetry-creation and interpretation; and (C) advisory group poetry-creation and interpretation. The key differences between these three approaches relate to the authorship or creators of the poem and the nature of interpretation.

Independent Poetry Creation and Collaborative Interpretation

In (A) the creator of the poem is the research participant, who may independently create a poem to share with the researcher. Together they would interpret its contents, with the researcher aiming to further understand the participant’s experiences from their words, pauses, repetitions, alliterations, narrative strategies and rhythms of speech to create prose (Gergen & Jones, 2008).

Example

In MC’s research she conducted an interview with her research participants to get to know them and talk about their experiences of children’s palliative care. Subsequently, she asked if they might like to write a poem about their experiences of care. One family in her study had created a poem for their son after his death, which they shared with her ahead of their second meeting. This allowed her to make notes, reflect and identify additional questions from the poem in advance. During the second meeting, MC ensured the poem was accessible to her and the family so they could interpret it together. The poem, originally written in Arabic, was carefully translated into English by the family. The process of interpretation was interesting in itself and their elder son described his frustration that the poem did not rhyme once translated. This was important to the family as the poem was lyrical and sung at memorial ceremonies. The family presented MC with four different interpretations of the poem, and together they considered them all during this meeting and in follow-up email conversations. All four poems focused on the family and particularly their son’s Islamic faith. The use of the word ‘humiliation’ in the family’s poem particularly resonated for MC:

“Recovery and reward you asked the Almighty Lord,

With patience and humiliation, His satisfaction you hoped”.

‘Humiliation’ initially jarred for MC, and she wondered if the word had been misinterpreted. The father found her questioning interesting and elaborated on the reasons this word had been used:

“For Muslims, we seek and crave the sense of humiliation when we pray and worship Allah. In the poem, it conveys how, even though (our son) was in so much pain and discomfort, he still bared the utmost patience … He would spend his time praying which would make him feel better. The word humiliation is used because (our son) felt broken, ill and weak, especially towards the end, yet so passionate and committed to his faith. (Our son) thrived on the sense of humiliation when he prayed, as he knew that God was the most powerful, and we are completely dependent on Him.”.

From asking for interpretation of this one word a hugely valuable thread of expression and communication was created which may have otherwise been missed. MC was able to ask further questions and gain a much deeper understanding of the family’s faith and how this affected the family’s health care decision-making which was invaluable to her research interpretations.

Collaborative Poetry-Creation and Interpretation

In (B) research participants may create poetry with the researcher or group members with similar experiences, as in a focus group. Interpretation may follow within the group but also separately when the researcher and individual participant come together to look at the poem. Many participants, while keen to engage in poetry-writing, will want the guidance and structure of the collaborative poetry-creation method. The key benefit of this method is that the participant retains agency over content while being supported to consider how language, form and structure can convey their themes and experiences.

Thus, after the research interview, a collaborative poetry-creation session may be arranged to enable researcher and participant to reflect on the interview. This process is essentially one of data analysis. By the end of this activity, the participant will have identified the themes/experiences they feel are most important to convey in their poem. They will have further built a bank of words, phrases, and images that can feature in the poem. Starting this reflective conversation by asking participant(s) if there are parts of the interview that stayed with them can be effective in centring the most important aspects of participants’ experiences as they understand them. LW found in asking a young participant this question, the participant answered that, since the interview, she had continued to think about the ways in which schools and workplaces were inaccessible to her and would like to write a poem on this topic. If participant(s) have clear ideas, as here, the researcher can move on to directing them to the relevant parts of the transcript. Providing participants with paper, pencil, and highlighters allows them to annotate the transcript, note down thoughts, and highlight words or phrases that stand out as particularly important. See Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Participant Transcript With Highlighting and Researcher Annotation

Finally, coming to the point of deciding the focus of the poem is a discursive process. The researcher should both listen and ask questions to support participants to identify which aspects they want to write about.

Example 1

LW’s young participant reflected on a point in her interview where she said that just being allowed a stool to sit on when she needed it would have made a job she gave up more manageable. She noted down that her employers reacted to her request as if she had been asking for too much – ‘as if she had been asking for a throne to sit upon instead of a stool’.

When writing the poem collaboratively, this process will be aided if participants and the researcher have a bank of words, phrases, and images (from their research interactions or individually created at home) that can feature in the poem. Together they can read these aloud, talk about which words already feel suited to a poem, and discuss any key images that could carry meaning, either literally or metaphorically, in the poem. Essentially this may relate to one or more evocative ideas participants wants to express.

Example 2

LW’s participant identified that there was a socially constructed ideal or expected ‘life path’ that her endometriosis prevented her from following. A key point here was to establish what the participant wanted to say about this concept of a ‘life path’. The participant commented that she wanted people to understand the impact of their words: how questions or comments suggesting the value of a life can be measured by the hitting or missing of certain milestones can be upsetting and isolating to someone living with a condition like hers.

As in Figure 2, the participant highlighted key words she felt were important. Subsequently the researcher and participant discussed how these ideas might be formatted into a poem. LW noted that the lines chosen seemed to emerge as pairs of ideas and so decided to make the poem all couplets. By listening to and speaking the words aloud the participant was able to inform the rhythm and voice of the poem. Such consideration of the ways in which elements of poetic form such as mode of address, tone, and registers of language might work to change the perspective of a reader is a valuable part of collaborative poetry-creation. The key is ‘play’: experimenting, reading, discussing and making changes until participants feel that their poem speaks in the ways they want it to. The resulting poem was ‘The Life Path’.

The Life Path

The first question anyone asks me ever:

what is my job?

everything stops for a minute,

sinking déjà vu to the pit of my gut

I know what they expect,

how I will disappoint –

which excuse will I choose

so you won’t judge my worth…

but why must I please you?

your world won’t open up to me.

my voice wants to scream

above the noise of your assumptions

but all you will hear

is the squeak of a failure –

a workplace makes a stool

seem like asking for a throne,

at a mention of my bleeding

you recoil, leaving me in shame

you won’t listen,

so why should I explain?

wasting energy I do not have

feeding ableist ideals –

the life path is a prison.

to stray is an offence.

so my existence is rebellion

loud and clear:

my job is to survive,

that is enough.

We advocate that at the end of the session; the researcher sends a copy of the poem to the participant. Authors MC and LW found this generated further discussion, as participants then added or suggested edits to their poem. Additionally, this process can help to build rigour into the research method by offering transparency and sense-checking from participant to researcher.

Advisory Group (PPIE) Poetry-Creation and Interpretation

In (C) participants may have chosen not to create their own poem and instead consented to an advisory group member reviewing their research interactions, such as their interview transcripts. Here interpretation of the poems occurs between the advisory group member and the researcher, but participants may also be involved, for example by ascertaining if the poem created accurately represents their experiences. At this stage refinement may take place and further interpretation of meaning-making can emerge.

Example

In MC’s study, advisory group poetry creation took place in two distinct ways. For more confident members who had written poetry previously, MC met with the advisory group member individually, provided context for the research and shared (with permission) the anonymised interview transcript. These advisory group members were then able to work independently with the transcripts following the methods outlined in (B) and in the literature by Featherstone and Sandfield (2013). Once a first draft was complete, a meeting was arranged to discuss the created poetry and share insights and interpretations. For MC this further functioned as an additional layer of analysis for her research.

The second method in working with advisory group members involved a young persons’ advisory group based in a large children’s hospital. Here members needed additional support to create poetry confidently and so additional group meetings were arranged to discuss techniques, work in progress and explore interpretations and reflections from their perspectives. These meetings provided a rich opportunity to discuss misunderstandings and for the researcher to gain valuable lived experience insights. The advisory group members in the young people’s group shared their enjoyment of collaboratively creating poetry and commented on the meaningfulness of their involvement:

“I found it really insightful being able to share someone’s journey and experiences through poetry”

“This project was definitely different to what we normally do, since we get to create our own “material” instead of solely commenting on what’s been done”

Follow-Up and Sharing With Participants

Collaborative poetry-creation means that participants have the opportunity to shape the poem to represent their experiences. It is still important, however, to offer opportunities for participants to return to the poetry in their own time and space to reflect on whether it feels true to them. Offering a follow-up session to participants who want to make any changes is a helpful approach here.

Examples

In LW’s experience one participant felt her poem needed a more powerful ending to drive its central message home, and she met this participant online to rework the poem and strengthen its ending. The participant was very pleased with the edits as she felt the finished poem was more aligned to what she wanted to say.

If the advisory group poetry-creation method is used, the practice of sharing a poem with the participant whose transcript it was written from is a vital one as it increases participant involvement in data analysis. In MC’s project, poems were returned to participants after creation to allow time for participants to reflect on the portrayal of their experiences and offer amendments to improve overall interpretation (Kendall & Murray, 2005).

Dissemination

A poetic research output offers additional opportunities for research to be disseminated. An opportunity to identify desired audiences based on a more accessible, more ‘easily consumable’ format can bring dissemination priorities closer to the wants and needs of the research group (van Rooyen & d’Abdon, 2020 p. 2). Working with a poetic output means that those represented by poetry can better envisage the spaces and audiences that their poetry might reach. Poet Julia Darling described the value of using poetry in a health context, pronouncing poetry ‘a powerful force’. Darling called for ‘more poets in residence in the health system, more poetry books in waiting rooms, more poetry on the walls, more training in creative writing for doctors, and more poetry printed on primary care leaflets’ (Darling & Fuller, 2015 p. 13). For dissemination, researchers may wish to consider public spaces such as waiting rooms and relevant organisations or charities who may represent relevant audiences where poetic outputs can inspire change or improve knowledge of conditions.

Example

LW’s participants expressed a desire for family members and friends of those living with endometriosis to hear their poetry. They hoped that the poems’ presentation of an ‘unmasked’ version of their endometriosis would provide an audience with insight into how much of life with the condition is hidden. They chose to read their work in front of an audience at the endometriosis charity’s annual fundraising ball, knowing that local organisations and businesses who could offer support to the endometriosis community would be in attendance. Currently this group are working to publish a book of their poems to take to local GP practices and the endometriosis clinic at their local hospital to share with clinical practitioners.

The range of options for dissemination is inexhaustible: crucially dissemination should be shaped by the priorities/needs of the research group and those who support them. An important point to remember is that poetry in research is not just as a method or tool to use on people or a process of extracting data (Petterway, 2021). Just as the methods are collaborative, so must be dissemination.

Discussion

Our intention within this article was to present a clear rationale for and provide detailed examples of collaborative poetry creation with young people and their families. As we have demonstrated, there are key advantages to this method, particularly for research involving young people. First, we highlight the capacity for poetry as a method to engage with experiences that other methods might not access. Second, we demonstrate how this approach seeks a more attentive and collaborative research process through multiple stages of back-and-forth with participants. Third, we emphasise how these two factors – communicating experiences and collaborative research – enable deeper and more equal engagement with marginalised perspectives, whose experiences are more frequently excluded from research. These methods support participants to express challenging or sensitive experiences, provide opportunities for collaborative listening and enhance researcher interpretation (of findings).

Advantages of Participant-Voiced Poetry

Engaging with and Communicating Experiences

Poetry has many benefits in research, including the ability to communicate experiences which might otherwise be challenging to express and convey (Sparkes & Douglas, 2007). By accessing these experiences and handling complexity (Görlich, 2016) this method supports engagement and researcher interpretation, simultaneously communicating these experiences, including through their dissemination.

We have given examples of the ways in which participants generously shared their experiences of coping with pain in various forms within the application of this method. We have particularly highlighted the sensorial possibilities and aesthetic evocations of poetic inquiry (Casey et al., 2015), which both enable participants to convey these experiences but also facilitate researcher interpretation. As an essential part of the method, the researcher is required to reflect carefully and creatively on participants’ choices in expressing their experiences and then communicate these sensitively and representatively in the process of poetry creation. Richardson (2000) highlights how this process can also add wholeness and interconnectedness of thoughts and feelings, which may help those who hear it to rethink the central concerns in a powerful manner.

The practice of deep engagement not only supports the researcher’s interpretation but also the possibilities for dissemination. The creation of poetic accounts can result in improved accuracy of interpretation as the method utilises participants’ own pauses, repetitions, alliterations, narrative strategies and rhythms of speech to create prose (Gergen & Jones, 2008). Subsequently, the created poems are an evocative dissemination tool by telling the realistic dimensions of participant’s’ experiences and helping listeners to be moved on a different level and thus respond, engage and listen differently (Kendall & Murray, 2005).

In the approaches we have detailed we hope to have demonstrated how the multi-step method supports more meaningful engagement with participant experiences. While other methods may also employ these practices of reflection and careful communication, poetic inquiry holds these practices at its heart.

An Attentive and Collaborative Research Process

The participant-voiced poetry method establishes a more equal and collaborative research relationship and process between researcher(s) and participant(s). From the first stages through to dissemination of the research, the relative openness and flexibility of this method and its collaborative focus enable participants to determine the form and extent of participation and expression. For example, modifications for accessibility, learning differences or health related adjustments can be made to support individualised involvement. Further, the three stages of collaboration – creation, interpretation and follow-up – support listening, reflection and feedback across the research relationship.

Poetic inquiry in research has been said to give freedom to participants to voice their experience in their own style and prose and as a conduit to help articulate their feelings more clearly than with standalone interview techniques (Chan, 2012). Poetry has also been shown to help slow down thinking and allow participants extra time and space, as they consider the most effective way to express themselves (Jack, 2016). Further, poetry has been found to help people cope with pain and uncertainty, deal with stress and benefit wellbeing, confidence and quality of life (Heimes, 2011).

Unlike other methods, which may also follow similar principles of attentiveness and collaboration, the multiple stages of back-and-forth, active listening and the creation of a collective output, support a more attentive and collaborative relationship.

Engaging the Marginalised Perspectives of Young People

Poetry can restore agency, allowing marginalised perspectives to be heard and represented under the writer(s)’ own terms (Xiang & Yi, 2020); this includes young people’s perspectives and prioritisations of social issues. While we have demonstrated the marginalised experiences of pain by those participating in the aforementioned research projects, we wish to make the case for the relevance of these methods for young people in particular. We have highlighted the possibilities for engagement, communication, attentiveness and collaboration through this method, however, these benefits for engaging the marginalised voices of young people have been thus far underemphasised.

We reiterate two earlier examples to highlight these benefits and make the case for the use of this method in research involving young people. For MC, young people in her research project took the roles of family representatives or advocates and poetry creators. Within this research project a sibling was able to share his experiences in depth but also help his father to articulate his feelings and how the family lived out their Muslim faith and beliefs. Such an approach shares philosophy with Cultural Humility, as advocated by Yeager and Bauer-Wu (2013). As the researcher voiced her uncertainty (‘I am not sure I understand … can you tell me more’), the sibling was encouraged to offer education. By acknowledging a limited understanding, a pivotal shift in relationship was felt as the researcher became the one who needed education, and the young person relished the chance to be heard. Such an approach fits with the work of Bhabha (2004, p. 312) on transcultural hybridity where ethnically diverse individuals meet and merge their views to create new knowledge (Lee, 2016; Manathunga, 2013).

In LW’s research, the process of poetry writing acknowledged and promoted a young person’s authority on her endometriosis that she formerly lacked. This participant remarked that conversations around her endometriosis – with healthcare professionals, for example – usually involved her being directed, leaving her feeling that she had little agency. This sense of not being credited as a ‘knower’ of one’s own bodily experience and body’s interests is a type of testimonial injustice conceptualised by Fricker (2007) that makes the opportunity to engage in activities such as poetry creation even more vital. For this young participant, the poetry writing process restored a sense of ownership and authority over the discussion and treatment of her body. She was able to prioritise the aspects of her personal experience that felt most relevant to her and to present these in images and phrases that drew links with the broader social and cultural themes at play in her endometriosis experience. Moreover, she was able to utilise ‘direct address’ in her poem, allowing her to respond directly to those people and cultures she felt contributed to her diminished sense of agency. In this way, she could assert her opinions about behaviours and beliefs that needed to change – in both interpersonal and societal discourse – in order to improve endometriosis experience.

The accessibility of this method for young people further arises from the openness of the method. If we consider a poem as ‘an elevator’ with the possibility of getting ‘on and off at different levels’ (Tusitala Marsh, 2020), then poetic inquiry becomes accessible for participants and researchers with a range of experience of this form, and this form as method. For young people, who are often in positions of less power in relation to adults, the poetic method might be more open for their chosen point of access. Further, for Görlich (2016), the layers of voices in poetic inquiry – participant, researcher, theoretical and reader – make transparent its multi-vocality. In the various methods of this article, the layering and bringing together of voices and repeated opportunities for dialogue and revision eschew any claim of accessing ‘authentic’ marginalised voices.

Concluding Remarks

Our detailed route map intends to support researchers interested in pursuing this method and presents an approach to the research process, which prioritises young people’s preferences and abilities. We reassert the advantages of collaborative participant-voiced poetry methods and the opportunities offered in terms of collaboration and dialogue between the researcher and participant(s); enhancing the researcher’s interpretations of the findings and thus their understanding of the topic; and further in disseminating the research. These methods require the researcher to listen carefully to participants, to value what they are saying and how, and to check that they have fully understood participants’ communications and intentions. This dialogue is particularly important in giving space to marginalised perspectives, missing from dominant discourse, including those of young people.

In keeping with the collaborative (PPIE) approaches advocated in this paper, this article has been co-produced with (author BD) and has been subject to review by a young people’s advisory group. The advisory group liked the idea of using poetry to help young people express their feelings, as they described verbal accounts as ‘often a bit long with lots to cover’. We would like to conclude with BD's reflections on the experience of writing poetry. Her summary captures the great potential of the poetic method as well as challenges in its use.

“I found the process empowering because I was able to use my unique perspective and ability to relate to families accessing healthcare to write poetry from their perspective. A unique positive aspect to utilising young people is that we often see the world from a different angle. We can bring new innovations to the table and help build a partnership with other generations to co-produce more successful projects. A limitation is that young people aren’t often taught how to write poetry and how to tackle a transcript. [Poetry creation] required perseverance, patience and teamwork. However, this can also be seen as a strength. [Poetry creation] offers freedom, confidence and new learning”.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental Material - ‘A Poem is a Galaxy’: A Route Map to Innovative Methods for Engaging Young People in Participant-Voiced Poetry

Supplemental Material for ‘A Poem is a Galaxy’: A Route Map to Innovative Methods for Engaging Young People in Participant-Voiced Poetry by Marie Clancy, Warner Laura, Fox Howe Rosie, Anna March, Dennis Bethany, Russell Ginny in International Journal of Qualitative Methods

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Katharine Howell for her contributions to the workshop and for creating the beautiful illustrations detailed in the route map.

ORCID iDs

Marie Clancy

Anna March

Ginny Russell

Consent to Participate

Participation in the workshop detailed in this paper was voluntary and all participants provided informed consent to sharing details of their contributions.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was funded by an Impact and Engagement Award from the Children and Young People’s Network, University of Exeter.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

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