Wednesday

I have just got back from the 3rd International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry (http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/cqr/international-symposium-on-poetic-inquiry.html) which was held at Bournemouth University from the 20th to the 23rd of October. It was a very rich experience with researchers coming from Canada, the US, South Africa, Denmark, as well as from around the UK. I was the novice of the bunch. At the same time I did feel at home and that I had something to offer from my experience as a writer-poet, therapist and researcher.

Poetry Inquiry is a qualitative research method, it is relatively new, it is controversial. The symposium offered case studies as well as some of the on-going debates. I was pleased too that there was room for the magical. A candlelit evening of poetry at the Russell-Cotes museum (http://www.russell-cotes.bournemouth.gov.uk/) and the conference dinner at the Langtry Manor Hotel (http://www.langtrymanor.co.uk/), the house built in 1877 by Edward VII for his mistress Lillie Langtry.

I was also given the gift of discovering how to perform Haiku, which I tried to do on the final day with this offering:

Hungry, I arrived.
Satiated by your words
I leave with silence.