Poets and suicide are making the news again. This time - BBC news is reporting about a project by an arts organization for the Highlands and Islands, HI-Arts, which is running a program of workshops and readings in schools in which young men are encouraged to talk about their emotions. This to offset a suicide level in the Highlands and Islands that has been above the national average.
But not everyone is happy. Mary Scanlon, MPS - Scottish Conservatives thinks the idea of someone writing about suicide is insensitive to the many families who are fighting to cope with their grief. She thinks it romanticises suicide - thus making it more of an option. "The more suicide is talked about the more likely people are to consider it as course of action."
No so says suicidal behavior expert Rory O'Connor who thinks anything that encouraged people to talk should be applauded.
poetry suicide
I was at an open mic in Boston recently where a man prefaced his reading by saying he had spent eight years in a maximum security prison in Texas. He said he never would have survived if it weren't for "God and poetry." Now he is out, and still writing poetry. I have to think that writing poetry has some kind of psychological benefit.
ReplyDeleteAmy I would have to agree. Even if I NEVER did another open mic or posted a poem or had another published in some journal... I think I'd HAVE to write to maintain some since of balance. Even if no one ever saw any of it.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a great equalizer in life and an antidote for much of what ills us.