Using Research Poetics “Responsibly”: Applications for Health Promotion Research

Abstract

Research poetics, a form of arts-based research methods, has been underutilized in the field of health promotion. Poetic methods have most commonly been used as a form of re/presentation of the lived experience in qualitative research. For the community-engaged researcher, re/presenting findings through poetry offers unique opportunities for engaging the reader and reaching diverse communities. However, this approach also has implications as an analytic method and allows the analyst to have a more meaningful and personal engagement with participants' stories. Perhaps most importantly, this approach acknowledges and brings to the forefront the co-construction of qualitative findings and de-centers the authority of the researcher by preserving and promoting the participant's voice. Using examples from the authors' own research, this article describes opportunities for incorporating research poetics into health promotion research and argues for its applicability for community-engaged health promotion researchers.

Figurative language can give shape to the difficult and the painful. It can make visible and “felt” that which is invisible and “unfeelable.” Imagery, more than anything else, can take us out of our own existence and let us stand in the condition of another instance, or another life. It can make the subject of the poem, whatever it is, as intimate as honey—or ashes—in the mouth. Use it responsibly [1, p. 108].