Journal article
Speaking About the Unspeakable: Poetry as a way to bear witness to suffering
Axon (Canberra, A.C.T.), Vol.14(2), pp.1-17
08/04/2025
Appears in Recent Faculty of Education Publications
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Abstract
This collaborative essay is adapted from a conference presentation by poets Emilie Collyer and Miriam Wei Wei Lo. There are two anchoring texts under discussion: poems by Lo and Collyer that are in close conversation with each other (Collyer’s poem is about gendered violence, Lo’s is about domestic violence). Collyer and Lo explore the unique ways in which poetry, as a form of creative writing, can bear witness to suffering. They pay particular attention to the strategies available in poetry that make it possible to enter into the paradox of speaking about what is rendered unspeakable by trauma. Collyer focuses on the poetic line, double poetic voice, and the possibilities for use of space on the page. Lo focuses on the fragment, sequential constraint (like the numbered stanza), and figurative language. The writers draw on a range of theories that connect poetry to ways of bearing witness to human suffering: including poetic inquiry as social justice, poetry as a practice of sacred lament, and broader feminist approaches to writing.
Details
- Title
- Speaking About the Unspeakable: Poetry as a way to bear witness to suffering
- Creators
- Emilie Collyer - Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (Australia, Melbourne)Miriam Wei Wei Lo - Southern Cross University
- Publication Details
- Axon (Canberra, A.C.T.), Vol.14(2), pp.1-17
- Publisher
- The Centre for Creative & Cultural Research University of Canberra
- Identifiers
- 991013396252102368
- Copyright
- The copyright for articles in this journal is retained by the author(s) with first publication rights granted to the journal.
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article