Can Poetry Work as a Form of Shamanic Healing?

Reading chapter 5 of the book ‘Saved by a Poem’ titled ‘The Anatomy of a Poem’ Kim Rosen argues that a poem can work like shamanic healing, using the breath, drumbeat/rhythms, song and images the poem invokes on the reader/listener.

Kim uses the Stanley Kunitz poem ‘King of the River’ as an example and places the poem at the end of the chapter.

And while I get what Kim is saying, I just can’t seem to get into poetry with the enthusiasm that Kim has for it.

To me it just makes my eyes glaze over with boredom, and I’m yet to find a poem that touches me like the poems that touch her.

I can’t think of any poems that I have read in my past that I feel that I want to commit to memory, to be honest.

Maybe when (and if) I get to the end of Kim’s book I might have changed my mind about poetry, but the only medicinal use I can personally find for poetry is a cure for my insomnia.

But maybe I’ll wake up to myself one day when it comes to the power of poetry?-)

Frieda Hughes and the Shamanic Spirit of Art?

Saved by a Poem?