In this episode Jacky Power shares three practical ways poetry can shift mood, process change, and make sense of big life transitions. Inspired by a conversation between Claire Fitzsimmons and Deborah Alma on A Thought I Kept, this episode explores how poems can be both something we read and something we write to help us feel differently.We discuss how a poem can create collective feeling, why humor can interrupt a spiral of overwhelm, and how playful writing can hold grief and hope at the same time.

Key topics

• In this episode: Jacky explains why Deb Alma’s idea behind the Poetry Pharmacy resonated so strongly, especially the belief that poems can change how we feel.
• She describes using Danusha Laméris’s Small Kindnesses in a local poetry group, where reading about tiny acts of care helped soften a grumpy winter mood and sparked gratitude.
• Jacky’s first technique is writing a story-poem in the third person, based on Patrick Carnes’s idea from Betrayal Bonds, to create emotional distance and see your own story with more compassion.
• Her poem Once Upon a Time uses a fairy-tale frame to talk about dismantling old narratives, letting go of self-censorship, and moving forward without needing everything to be factually literal.
• She emphasises that poetry does not have to be “true” in a literal sense to be emotionally true, and that suspending self-judgment can open up new meaning.
• Her second technique is using humour to break a “despair magnet” mindset, where one worry leads to another until everything feels overwhelming.
• She shares a deliberately absurd to-do list poem to show how exaggeration and silliness can restore perspective when ordinary responsibilities feel endless.
• Her third technique is writing through transition and grief, using recent experiences of children moving out of the house as a prompt for poems that begin sentimental and then shift into lightness.
• Across all three examples, Jacky highlights poetry as a tool for holding two truths at once, such as grief and pride, fear and faith, or loss and hope.

Connect with Jacky

Follow me on Instagram: @the_therapeutic_poet
Get my book
Check out my website
Join my Awakening To Presence course on Insight Timer
Get my self-paced course: Permission To Feel Loneliness(Use the code TOGETHER for 10% off)

Timestamps

00:00 - Why poems can change mood and meaning
01:02 - How a poem can create shared feeling in a group
01:23 - Reading Small Kindnesses and the power of tiny acts
02:53 - Poetry as a tool for making meaning from experience
03:13 - Technique one: writing your story as a fairy tale
04:18 - Getting unstuck when you do not know what to write
05:03 - Once Upon a Time and the collapse of old narratives
06:57 - Why the poem is really about hope and rebuilding
08:15 - Letting go of self-censorship and literal thinking
09:23 - Holding faith and fear at the same time
10:22 - Technique two: escaping the “despair magnet”
11:36 - A silly to-do list poem to interrupt overwhelm
12:51 - Using absurdity to get perspective on real stress
13:54 - Why autonomy matters in changing your mood
14:23 - Technique three: writing through children leaving home
15:09 - Sentimental writing and the ache of transition
16:56 - Moving from grief into humor and release
17:34 - Using poems to make space for both loss and hope
18:13 - Closing thoughts and listener invitation

Useful links:
A thought I kept podcast with Claire Fitzsimmons and guest Deborah Alma