How do I, and individuals like me — who cannot speak — find their voices?
If you cannot speak — or use sign language or use your hands to write — communication is a challenge. How do you make your needs known? How do you relate wants and desires? How do you transmit thoughts, create discourse, and ask questions? How do you create meaning in a silent world?
These questions go beyond mechanics — the issue is not a medical; it is not about a miracle cure; is not about technology creating an artificial means of speaking. The issue is communication — and what we mean by communication. How do those who cannot use their tongue to speak — their hands to sign or their fingers to write — express themselves? Is their self-expression the same as those who have no struggle to do so?
These questions can be answered by journeying down many paths. Medicine and technology might be avenues that could enlighten the discussion. Let’s suppose for a moment, that a cure could be found — or a mechanical device could be invented — that could restore speech, what then? How do we who have lived in silence for so long suddenly find our voices? What does it mean to find a voice? How does meaning spring forth from a silent world?
In my case, apraxia precludes sufficient conscious control over both fine and gross motor muscle groups to produce functional speech, sign language, or writing. Apraxia, found deep within the brain, is a disorder about which very little is known, very little is understood. There is no cure.
As a small child I heard talking but made little attempt to listen to it. My life was one of sounds, images, and sensations. I was aware of letters and words, but had no syntax — no real language. At six I was introduced to a communication system which taught me the location of letters on a keyboard, that letters composed words, words sentences, and that language followed a system of rules — that could be used to communicate. Prior to learning to type on a keyboard, I could only express myself through ineffective grunts. Years of speech therapy proved ineffective. It took my fingers three years to master the simple art of pointing.
Once I began training on a keyboard, along with ongoing speech and language therapy, my mind began to think in language — at long last. Through the years my spoken language would improve very little but my written language blossomed. With a keyboard I am able to communicate — using a single finger to type one letter at a time with physical support and emotional encouragement. This method gives me access to the outside world, a means of expression. Is that expression, however, the same as those who are lucky enough to have been endowed with speech from birth? Would I be naïve to think that those years of utter silence have taken no toll on my psyche?
The study of psychology might give me insight into how the psyche works, an understanding of normal and abnormal mental processes and behaviors. With this information I might be able to understand the behavior and motives of others and myself. But would I gain any insight as to how to give my expression meaning?
To explore how one might find their true voice, I viewed a TED Talk by Oscar Schwartz entitled: “Can a Computer Write Poetry” (May 2015 at TEDxYouth@Sydney) in which the speaker presented poems generated by both computers and humans and asked an audience to determine which was which — the answers were surprising. The audience was fooled in both directions — at times they thought computer generated poems were composed by humans AND vice versa. The point of the talk was that what we think of as human changes over time — the definition is fluid — as Schwartz illustrated by comparing the poetry of William Blake and Gertrude Stein (many in the audience thought Stein was more computer than human.) Schwartz concluded that computers only serve as mirrors — reflecting the aspects of humanity programmed into them. The notion of humanity, however, is too diverse to be distilled into artificial intelligence.
From Schwartz’s talk one can extrapolate that humanity cannot be defined by Platonic form; that is, we are not mere reflections of some ideal human. Instead, we define humanity by noting its diversity — where we see enough similarities we create an Aristotelian classification we label humanity. All my life I have struggled to be human, to appear human — for the behaviors of autistic, and even more so apraxic, individuals can appear quite “other.” Unable to express oneself in language, precluded from even expressing emotion (as some are) can lead to a designation of those of us plagued by these disorders as something other than human. As such, how do non-verbal individuals find their place among humanity?
Was it not Aristotle who stated that what separates mankind from the animals is language? By Aristotle’s strict definition I am not human if I cannot speak — I’m a mere animal (though some would argue that such a definition is moot in light of research that shows many deprecatingly labeled as animals do have complex means of communication — that is language — though we humans cannot perceive it.) By Schwartz’s definition, however, I am just as human as any other with my biology — though I may think differently, though my experience may be different. Is it possible that I have something to offer to humanity that arises from my difference — as well as my similarity?
What attracted me to Schwartz’s TED Talk was not only his discussion of what makes us human, but that he did so using poetry. Only very recently have I begun to express myself in poetry, an art form which uses language to communicate directly with its audience. Unlike dance, music, acting, and to some extent the visual arts of photography, painting, and sculpture, poetry is not interpreted by another artist before it reaches its audience. Its communication is very direct — and yet not direct — in that it demands its audience fill in the spaces between the words to bring about its meaning (unlike other forms of fiction.) Accordingly, it would seem that poetry is a means to finding one’s voice — one that can be expressed without the art of speech.
Now where to go? At this juncture the journey has only just begun. From this starting place the avenues of discovery spread out like spokes on a wheel. The nature of creativity and the creative process make a good beginning. That study should be augmented by an understanding of the history of poetry, its form and style, through the ages and around the world. Consideration should be given to the physical/cognitive process of poetry and the same to its reception. Linguistics — the building blocks of language, the tools of poetry — should be studied — as should rhetoric and criticism. In the context of “now” spoken language versus written poetry should be examined. Poetry as therapy is a new and developing field. And it would serve well to look at the lives and struggles of those with disabilities who found their voices in a variety of art forms — such as poet Christy Brown plagued with cerebral palsy or Beethoven a deaf composer. So many streets to walk on the way to answering the question — how do non-verbal individuals find their voices — how do I find my voice? Only one thing is clear — the pathway will be multifaceted and the journey long.
Big Question Research
Articles:
“What education do I need to become a Poet”– http://learn.org/articles/What_Education_Do_I_Need_to_Become_a_Poet.html
“College Majors for aspiring writers” — http://www.poewar.com/college-majors-for-aspiring-writers/
Stylistics — Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylistics –Stylistics, a branch of applied linguistics, is the study and interpretation of texts in regard to their … Published as Linguistics and Poetics in 1960, Jakobson’s lecture is often credited with being the first coherent formulation of stylistics, and his …
Relevant TED talks:
Oscar Schwartz –Can a computer write poetry? — TEDxYouth@Sydney · 10:56 · Filmed May 2015 — If you read a poem and feel moved by it, but then find out it was actually written by a computer, would you feel differently about the experience? Would you think that the computer had expressed itself and been creative, or would you feel like you had fallen for a cheap trick? In this talk, writer Oscar Schwartz examines why we react so strongly to the idea of a computer writing poetry — and how this reaction helps us understand what it means to be human. https://www.ted.com/talks/oscar_schwartz_can_a_computer_write_poetry
Stephen Burt — Why people need poetry — TEDGlobal 2013 · 13:12 · Filmed Jun 2013 “We’re all going to die — and poems can help us live with that.” In a charming and funny talk, literary critic Stephen Burt takes us on a lyrical journey with some of his favorite poets, all the way down to a line break and back up to the human urge to imagine. https://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_burt_why_people_need_poetryhttps://
Sarah Kay –How many lives can you live? -TEDxEast · 12:15 · Filmed May 2011– Spoken-word poet Sarah Kay was stunned to find she couldn’t be a princess, ballerina and astronaut all in one lifetime. In this talk, she delivers two powerful poems that show us how we can live other lives. www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_how_many_lives_can_you_livehttps://www.James Geary–Metaphorically speaking
TEDGlobal 2009 · 9:30 · Filmed Jul 2009 –Aphorism enthusiast and author James Geary waxes on a fascinating fixture of human language: the metaphor. Friend of scribes from Aristotle to Elvis, metaphor can subtly influence the decisions we make, Geary says. ted.com/talks/james_geary_metaphorically_speaking
Scholarly Works:
Readings in Human Development: A Humanistic Approach — edited by Theron M. Covin — https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wmxZIaW03QkC&oi=fnd&pg=PA107&dq=what+education+does+a+poet+need&ots=RE1Bf5jcp_&sig=LaCPCbnUeUoTd4bHy65igRu1hGc#v=onepage&q&f=false
Radical Artifice: Writing Poetry in the Age of Media — By Marjorie Perloff — https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=HoTDYIc3RAkC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=writing+poetry+education+needed&ots=v1D66QqkqG&sig=548-kSP0jeo1Z9Vv-DJ1Hdbha6I#v=onepage&q&f=false
‘Every poem breaks a silence that had to be overcome’*: The Therapeutic Power of Poetry Writing by Gillie bolton Feminist Review June 1999, Vo. 62 Issue 1 pp 118–133 — http://link.springer.com/article/10.1080/014177899339225
The Creative Process: A Symposium — edited by Brewster Ghiselin 1952, 1985 UC Press — https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0520054539 — This unique anthology brings together material from 38 well-known writers, artists, and scientists who attempt to describe the process by which original ideas come to them.
The Elephants Teach: Creative Writing since 1880 — Myers, David Gershom. University of Chicago Press — When Vladimir Nabokov was up for a chair in literature at Harvard, the linguist Roman Jakobson protested: “What’s next? Shall we appoint elephants to teach zoology?” That anecdote, with which D. G. Myers begins “The Elephants Teach”, perfectly frames the issues this book tackles. Myers explores more than a century of debate over how writing should be taught and whether it can or should be taught in a classroom at all. Along the way, he incorporates insights from a host of poets and teachers, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Frost, John Berryman, John Dewey, Lionel Trilling, Robert Lowell, Ezra Pound, and Saul Bellow. And from his exhaustive research, Myers extracts relevant background information on nineteenth-century educational theory; shifts in technology, publishing, and marketing; the growth of critical theory in this country; and the politics of higher education. While he shows how creative writing has become a machine for creating more creative writing programs, Myers also suggests that its history supplies a precedent for something different — a way for creativity and criticism, poetry and scholarship, to join together to produce not just writing programs but good writers. Updated with fresh commentary on what’s happened to creative writing in the academy since the first edition was published ten years ago, “The Elephants Teach” will be indispensable for students and teachers of writing, literature, and literary history.
The associative basis of the creative process by Mednick, Sarnoff — Psychological Review, Vol 69(3), May 1962, 220–232. — http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0048850 — An associative theory of creative thinking has been outlined. Differences between high creatives and low creatives have been predicted along specified dimensions. Predictions have been made regarding the effect on the creative process of some experimentally manipulable variables. The associative definition of the creative process has taken the operational form of a test. Some preliminary research with this test is described. (PsycINFO Database Record © 2016 APA, all rights reserved) http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/rev/69/3/220/
Creativity: The magic synthesis. — Arieti, Silvano — Oxford, England: Basic Creativity: The magic synthesis.(1976). xv 448 pp. — Describes what happens to the mind during the process of creation. Discussions focus on the personality of the creative individual, the effects of mind-altering drugs, the relations of psychopathology to creative work, and 9 positive factors (e.g., availability of cultural and physical means, exposure to different and even contrasting cultural, and tolerance for and interest in diverging, views) that make for a society in which creativity is valued and fostered. (141/4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record © 2016 APA, all rights reserved) http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=1976-27995-000
An Analysis of Creativity — Mel Rhodes — The Phi Delta Kappan — Vol. 42, №7 (Apr., 1961), pp. 305–310 — Published by: Phi Delta Kappa International — Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20342603 — Page Count: 6 — http://www.jstor.org/stable/20342603?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Brain activity and connectivity during poetry composition: Toward a multidimensional model of the creative process — Siyuan Liu,Michael G. Erkkinen,Meghan L. Healey,Yisheng Xu,Katherine E. Swett, Ho Ming Chow,Allen R. Braun — First published: 26 May 2015DOI: 10.1002/hbm.22849
Haiku Poetry and Metaphorical Thought: An Invitation to Interdisciplinary Study — Dawn G. Blasko & Dennis W. Merski Pages 39–46 | Published online: 08 Jun 2010 — http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1101_5 — Haiku, a Japanese form of short poetry, enjoys international popularity. The combination of simplicity of form and profoundness of meaning makes haiku an ideal topic for the interdisciplinary study of creativity. Haiku is unusual among poetic genres in that poets are cautioned to avoid the use of figurative language such as metaphor, which may obscure the expression of a simple perceptual truth. In the same breath, the poet is told that good haiku usually have two elements in tension that create in the reader a new insight — a definition that sounds remarkably like modern views of metaphor. In this article, we examine this interesting paradox and describe some preliminary data from an ongoing series of studies. We suggest that the negative view of metaphor often expressed by teachers and poets may be primarily definitional. Modern views of metaphor suggest that it is much more than literary embellishment and, in fact, often speak of it as closely akin to perceptual processes. Unfortunately, this new perspective on figurative language has not been widely embraced by disciplines outside of cognitive science, largely because of an unfortunate lack of interdisciplinary communication. The purpose of this article is to begin just such a discussion.
A Psychology of Poetry? — jstor — www.jstor.org/stable/40029387 — by JT Guthrie — 1984 — New York lecture without saying it, cognitive psychology cannot ac- count for poetry because the province of the poem, experience, is broader than thinking.
“On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry” by C.G. Jung — studiocleo.com/librarie/jung/essay.html — In spite of its difficulty, the task of discussing the relation of analytical psychology to poetry affords me a welcome opportunity to define my views on the much … — Poetry is like music to the mind, scientists prove — Psychology … — psychology.exeter.ac.uk › … › Psychology › Latest news › Research news — Oct 9, 2013 — New brain imaging technology is helping researchers to bridge the gap between art and science by mapping the different ways in which the …
“Some Thoughts on the Relationship Between Poetry and Psychology … — www.rattle.com/some-thoughts-on-the-relationship-between-poetry-and-psychology- — Jun 18, 2011 — What poetry may refer to as the abyss, our wilderness or wild, psychology more likely refers to as the unconscious. Poetry offers psychology its …
Linguistics and Poetry -Yakira H. Frank — — The English Journal — Vol. 59, №7 (Oct., 1970), pp. 947–953 — Published by: National Council of Teachers of English — DOI: 10.2307/814123 — Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/814123
The Role of Linguistics in a Theory of Poetry — Paul Kiparsky — Daedalus -Vol. 102, №3, Language as a Human Problem (Summer, 1973), pp. 231–244 — Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences — Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20024157
Blogs
Love Affair Between Psychology and Poetry — It’s April, National Poetry month, time for musings on Psychology and Poetry. — Posted Apr 07, 2015 — https://www.psychologytoday.com/.../love-affair-between-psychology-and-poetry — Writing poetry is both a psychological and spiritual endeavor because it taps into the practice of mindfulness by encouraging the poet to remain in the moment with their words.
Jane Hirshfield: Why Write Poetry? | Psychology Today — https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/one-true.../jane-hirshfield-why-write-poetry — Jan 6, 2014 — “Poetry is a trick of language-legerdemain, in which the writer is both magician and audience. You reach your hand into the hat and surprise …
Writing and Publishing FAQ | Academy of American Poets — https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/writing-and-publishing-faq — Apr 15, 2011 — How can I get my poems published? … Read everything you can get your hands on: contemporary and classic; English and translation, formal … How can I become a poet? · How can I get my poems published?
How To Submit Poems To Literary Journals And Magazines — Writer’s … — writersrelief.com/blog/…/how-to-submit-poems-to-literary-journals-and-magazines/ — Jan 11, 2010 — Write awesome poems. One would think this goes without saying. Research markets. Choose 3 to 5 of your best poems for submission. Format and proofread your poems. Write your cover letter. Put your submission together. Keep track of where you send your poems. Get ready to do it all again.
Frequently asked questions — The Poetry Society — https://poetrysociety.org.uk/frequently-asked-questions/ — Do you have some general guidelines towards getting published? It is important to know that … How do I submit my poems to Poetry Review/Poetry News? If you are … How do I add a link to your website or advertise with you? We do not have …
Getting your poetry published | WritersServices — www.writersservices.com/help-writers/getting-your-poetry-published — There are also books which help with getting your poetry into good shape and published — a good one is by Chris Hamilton-Emery, the Publishing Director of Salt …
How to Publish Poetry for Free and Get It Copyrighted | LegalZoom … — info.legalzoom.com › Copyrights — For poetry, you will need Form TX. Complete and mail the completed application, copy of your poetic work and filing fee to the U.S. Copyright Office at the address indicated on the application form. Applications may also be filed using the U.S. Copyright Office’s electronic filing system, known as eCO.
Key search words
Poetry, Poems, Poets, Creativity, Linguistics and poetry, Metaphors, Disabled poets/artists, Creative writing, Poetry as therapy, Curriculum for poets, Psychology and poetry, Psychology behind poetry, Stylistics
Contacts
Whittier College — Department of English
Tony Barnstone, Michelle Chihara, Scott Creley
Whittier College — Department of Psychology
Charles Hill
Outside — Poets:
Brendan Constantine, Elena Karina Byrn, Sholeh Wolpe
