Poetic Invitations

Poetry as Hypnotic Invitation to Change

I have written before about how poetry can be seen as hypnotic communication (see Poetry is Sorcery). By hypnotic communication I mean:

To be Present with another and to communicate deliberately and carefully in order to orient the person’s attention and imagination by choosing words and gestures that open possibilities for positive change.

Poetry can be used to build rapport with the client/audience or to add layers and nuance to a message in such a way that reduces critical judgment and resistance. Poetry may also be used to complement a new awareness by integrating nonrational with rational understanding. Additionally, poetry may be incorporated into a trance state to activate emotions to mobilize awareness into action.

Below is an example of a poem I have used in sessions or in teaching seminars.

Consider the poem “benediction for the intruder” by Lizz Huerta.[1] This poem evokes emotions, and has drama, suspense, and a surprise ending that orients our attention and opens the listener’s/reader’s mindset.

benediction for the intruder

by Lizz Huerta

bless the man at the foot of my bed at 3am, bless his unfired gun. bless my new policy of locked doors. bless the country he devastated. bless his training, the men who broke him. bless the blood on their uniforms. bless those who died because they were born in the wrong part of the world. bless the man with the gun who was once a boy raped by his foster father. bless the reservation he was born on. bless the tattered flag over their taken land. bless the man who raped his mother to make him. bless the drugs she thought would save her, bless the gang he thought would save him.

bless his first crime. bless the judge who instead of a sentence gave him a gun to carry in the name of the flag that was never his mother or his land or for saving. bless my instinct, bless my fool decision to leap up out of bed to embrace him, bless the words I wept you can’t hurt me. bless that somewhere in his heart he heard.

When reading this poem, did you feel drawn in? How did the repetition of the word “bless” engage and captivate you? Was it a suggestion to experience a state? Did you experience uncertainty as to where the poem was going and surprise at where you ended with the author? Did it activate emotions? Which ones, and did they change or surprise you?

The poem is layered with messages about race, discrimination, and colonization. As such, it is an example of how poetry can articulate experiences of disenfranchisement, activate a sense of mutuality to support healing, and serve as a political call to action. By making visible a contextual history of the offender’s life, the poet challenges the simple criminalization of racialized groups that are often used to justify violence and indeed challenges and negates the necessity of creating the “other” from individuals who come from different backgrounds. The resurgence of protests around the globe through Black Lives Matter and other movements exemplifies the importance of poems such as this that challenge the status quo in an emotionally resonant way.

Audiences with whom I have shared this poem have typically found it emotionally evocative and compelling. The poem facilitates a shift from us and them thinking to connection with both the victim (the author) and the intruder. The author’s compassion activates our own compassion and creates a sense of hope or possibility for change in offenders and courageous resiliency for those victimized. Listeners often reported that they were moved from a mere cognitive understanding of compassion to feeling compassion. The repetition of the word bless not only activates focus; it invites a mind-body state.

Thus, one can see how poems can invite attunement and focus on an idea while also helping the listener open their mindset to new information and even invite action towards life-affirming change.

[1] Unpublished poem, used with permission from the author, Lizz Huerta who is also the author of the award-winning book The Lost Dreamer.

From:

CORE Hypnosis at the FriesenPress Bookstore

also available at Amazon and other fine bookstores.

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