The Healing Verse — Trapeta, Enoch, and Beth - OC87 Recovery Diaries

The Healing Verse — Trapeta, Enoch, and Beth

by

in this season
we have learned
the winter of this place
we know its grip, its claw, its hold
(from in this season we heal, by Trapeta B. Mayson)

Encounters with the arts are as nourishing as any meal. They help us restore identity and hope and serve as a new way of exploring all that we are going through. Yet real encounters with the arts in COVID-19 era has been tough on all of us. Trying to create a sense of normalcy has required some real innovation. When traditional gathering places for poetry experiences were shut down because of the pandemic, Trapeta B. Mayson, the city of Philadelphia 2020-2021 Poet Laureate, wanted to find a way to reach people with poetry. In addition to her work as a poet, Trapeta is a licensed clinical social worker, with a focus on mental health. She is aware of the positive connection between poetry and mental health, so she tapped into the strong community of poets in the Philadelphia area and created The Healing Verse Poetry Line.

When you see I have gone
to the place that leaves me
quietly undone,
you leave me lavender.
(from how I know, by Beth Feldman Brandt)

OC87 Recovery Diaries is thrilled to shine a spotlight on The Healing Verse Poetry Line (1-855-763-6792)a toll-free telephone line that offers callers a 90-second poem – and a moment of pause in our busy days — that helps us center, contemplate and think just a bit differently about the grind of everyday. They helping us reframe our traditional “cross things off my ‘to do’ list” mentality.

I am my mothers son, which means I know
what it is to be restrained, to shackle oneself for
someone else’s freedom.
I know what it is to overflow;
to bubble over.
(from Fractal (mom), by Enoch the Poet)

​We’re also thrilled in this second post to highlight the words and thoughts of Healing Verse poets Trapeta B. Mayson, Enoch the Poet, and Beth Feldman Brandt. Please take a moment to get to know each artist a bit better and spend time with their poems—a simple, refreshing and important pause in our busy day.

As poet Beth Feldman Brandt says, “I think everybody needs to stop and rest a bit and maybe listen to a poem and just have a quiet or healing moment.”

Next month we will feature the other poets highlighted in the series. In the meantime, enjoy these fine artists. We at OC87 Recovery Diaries are grateful for their talent, and treasure the opportunity to share them with you.

 

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Gabriel Nathan | EDITOR: Glenn Holsten | DESIGN: Leah Alexandra Goldstein | PUBLISHER: Bud Clayman

See Related Recovery Stories: BIPOC Mental Health Recovery Stories, COVID-19 and Mental Health, Mental Health Short Films, The Healing Verse

Glenn is an award-winning director who loves to create compelling documentary story experiences of all lengths for screens of all sizes. He is an avid reader, studied literature in college, and his passion for stories with strong characters and interesting narratives stems from those years. His career as a visual storyteller began at WHYY (the public television station in Philadelphia) where he worked for 15 years before becoming an independent filmmaker. In addition to his PBS documentaries about arts and culture, he has directed films about justice and human rights, and now, mental health. He was emboldened to undertake his current documentary project, Hollywood Beauty Salon, a colorful feature-length documentary about surviving mental illness and finding the courage for recovery, after his transformative experience directing OC87: The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger’s Movie, along with Bud Clayman and Scott Johnston.