Chapter 8: Being, becoming and knowing through poetry

Abstract

This chapter stems from our experience and reflections of drawing on poetry as academics and in our personal lives. We explain why and how we have come to engage with poetry as a form of knowing, expressing ourselves and being within and outside of academia. We explore the potential of poetry to centre marginalised voices, to speak up against otherness and (dis)alienation, and to resist the normalised silencing of those who are identified as strangers against the backdrop of the privileged majority. In this chapter, we also highlight the differences between ‘academic’ and ‘street’ poetry, considering the uses and usefulness of the latter as a form of academic narrative arts-based method to democratise research. Poetry free from artificial stylistic imposition can be effective as an instrument to communicate to a variety of audiences, and to resist the limitation of masculine and hegemonic ways of understanding academic expression. As such, poetry is also experienced and advocated as a powerful political project, and as a form of inclusive organising that values embodiment and affect as central and unifying human experiences. This is particularly relevant in academic contexts and fields premised on disembodied, quantifying and ‘logical’ understandings of being and working in academia. To illustrate this, the chapter includes personal reflective narratives and poetry alongside more traditional academic text.