{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Words in the Wilderness","title":"Poetry as emotional alchemy","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1259,"description":"In this episode Jacky Power shares three practical ways poetry can shift mood, process change, and make sense of big life transitions. Inspired by a conversation between Claire Fitzsimmons and Deborah Alma on A Thought I Kept, this episode explores how poems can be both something we read and something we write to help us feel differently.We discuss how a poem can create collective feeling, why humor can interrupt a spiral of overwhelm, and how playful writing can hold grief and hope at the same time.\nKey topics\nIn this episode: Jacky explains why Deb Alma’s idea behind the Poetry Pharmacy resonated so strongly, especially the belief that poems can change how we feel.\nShe describes using Danusha Laméris’s Small Kindnesses in a local poetry group, where reading about tiny acts of care helped soften a grumpy winter mood and sparked gratitude.\nJacky’s first technique is writing a story-poem in the third person, based on Patrick Carnes’s idea from Betrayal Bonds, to create emotional distance and see your own story with more compassion.\nHer poem Once Upon a Time uses a fairy-tale frame to talk about dismantling old narratives, letting go of self-censorship, and moving forward without needing everything to be factually literal.\nShe emphasises that poetry does not have to be “true” in a literal sense to be emotionally true, and that suspending self-judgment can open up new meaning.\nHer second technique is using humour to break a “despair magnet” mindset, where one worry leads to another until everything feels overwhelming.\nShe shares a deliberately absurd to-do list poem to show how exaggeration and silliness can restore perspective when ordinary responsibilities feel endless.\nHer third technique is writing through transition and grief, using recent experiences of children moving out of the house as a prompt for poems that begin sentimental and then shift into lightness.\nAcross all three examples, Jacky highlights poetry as a tool for holding two truths at once, such as...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/hWOJzs9My3AEtPNBYp_3c6d2c4zfOy3xXSnAP5_vXr4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hODZk/ZGQ3Mjk3NjJmMWE4/NjllMWZlNzVlZTEw/MjgwMi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}