Shift Poetry in the Time of COVID-19

We are living in a time, and in a world, which for most people alive today would have been unthinkable and unknowable a few short months ago, when the calendar flipped to the first day of the third decade of the 21st Century. We are “self-isolating.” We are apart from our friends and loved ones. Alone with our thoughts and at safe social distance from each other. We are all trying to figure out how to cope. COVID-19 has changed everything.

The program of ShiftPoetry(TM) is one way to help us all come to terms with this new reality. ShiftPoetry is an exercise in self-reflection, self-expression, and self-healing. Simply put, this “technology,” conceived by Barbara Ligeti and Howard Kern in 2018, is an approach to writing spontaneously in order to free the mind, confront one’s emotions, and promote a feeling of personal well-being.

“Poetry” according to American Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith among others is simply “writing without rules.” Kern and Ligeti advocate generating this kind of expression to “shift to a better place” – thus ShiftPoetry. 

ShiftPoetry in the Time of COVID-19 is an interactive workbook designed to emulate the ShiftPoetry experience of our live workshops. It contains a series of writing prompts, for you to respond to, as well as examples of poems that previous ShiftPoetry workshop participants have created. Our prompts naturally guide one from dark to light, from issue to solution, from a question to an answer, or at least a greater understanding of the question. The goal is that everyone will find understanding and love of self and others with this work. 

For more about ShiftPoetry please visit our website at www.shiftpoetry.com.