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Healthy Haiku: Liberating the Minds of the Incarcerated & Reducing Recidivism

HAIKU POETRY is the core of much of my wellness education work including workshops with youth and the incarcerated; and training for mentors, teachers, parents and Sheriff’s Offices. I recently had a wonderful opportunity to apply the Healthy Haiku teaching method to teach inmates in the Dekalb County Sheriff’s Office. It was entitled - Options for Living and Learning Program. HAIKU is an ancient form of Japanese poetry that uses 17 syllables to tell a big story with few words usually configured as 5 syllables on the first lines, 7 syllables on the second line and 5 syllables on the third line.

haiku-ga

(THE ABOVE PICTURE DEPICS HEALTHY HAIKU WORKSHOP TRAINING WITH MENTORS IN GEORGIA)

I named this program Healthy Haiku to symbolize the organic flow between health and wellness, poetry and other creative arts. I started this work with children in 2006 and over time realized that adults can benefit from the same information and process – especially parents, teachers and mentors. Four publications and 20 years later, I found myself loving the work with the inmates – many of whom are parents and others that hoped to become parents and mentors. The time spent with them had me at my creative best, helping them to see the infinite possibilities for their lives created anew! The Healthy Haiku process guided them through lessons about nutrition, self-esteem, forgiveness, creations of vision boards and so much more. A typical lesson (not that any of them are typical per se!) started with meditation, power cards, followed by the main lesson which always involved some type of creativity on their parts, and we closed with evaluations and Namaste (the Divine in Me – Greets the Divine in You!).

I was there to challenge them to step into their power - stop being mediocre (which is way overrated anyway) and to be about the business of being on their Divine soul journey. Enough with the distractions and playing small. Marianne Williamson reminded us in her famous poem Our Deepest Fear – that ” Your playing small doesn’t serve the world!” Sometimes they got mad at me and it was during those times that I knew that I was pushing some buttons and took them to the edge – heading to a breakthrough. It is uncomfortable there – and there was nowhere to hide and nowhere to go but up!

random-pic-females-inmate-students

(RANDOM PICTURE OF FEMALE INMATES IN CLASS – NOT TAKEN AT DEKALB JAIL)

Once I asked them read a play that I co-created with my teen theater group (Y.E.S. 4 Health, Inc.) some years ago entitled Drive-Thru Justice. The play highlights health disparities regarding diabetes in the African-American and Hispanic communities. Some of them didn’t quite get the play which the youth loved. It was based on science, facts, very dramatic – filled with humor and excitement. One woman said it was racist. I explained that it was based on facts and was meant to educate primarily African-American and Hispanic audiences about diabetes – how you get it, how it is prevented and one community’s struggle to make a difference in health outcomes in their community by highlighting the negative consequences of fast food consumption. One woman who refused to read any of the characters for two weeks straight, was singing under her breath as we wrapped up the class. I told her that I forgot that she was a singer and asked if she knew “His Eye is on the Sparrow?” and if she would sing it next week in the funeral scene. Her face lit up with a smile as she proudly proclaimed that she knew it and would be happy to sing it next week - which she did so beautifully! Yes! I accepted the challenge of making this work relevant to their lives! My work has been to a large extent influenced by the works of Paulo Freire, famous Brazilian educator and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Several classes focused on Powerful Words and Thoughts v. Thoughts that Zap Your Power! The writing and reciting of poetry was the last phase of the exercise that started with brainstorming about the issues for each class. Both men and women’s classes produced phenomenal poetry summing up their thoughts. Again, haiku is brief but some of them are so powerful that they can leave you breathless. Here is a sample. You be the judge. I am already biased…(in a good sort of way!)

I am so open

To strive for a better life.

Only I can change!

I have the power

To Encourage the young Kids

Don’t do what I did!

We will go home soon.

They can’t hold me here forever.

God has forgiven Us.

Life is not my Enemy.

Turn negativity into

Positive Energy!

(Not haiku but great words)

I am a Spiritual Being.

I control my own destiny in Life.

Love is the Greatest Power of All!

(Not haiku but great words)

I am somebody

Who’s talented and gifted.

There is always Hope!

For more information see Educating the Incarcerated: Facilitating Opportunities for Growth and Understanding. On Amazon.