Poetic Inquiry

"The International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry brings together international poets and scholars from diverse contexts and interdisciplinary fields to share their work. Presentations are offered in various formats."

The first symposium was held in Vancouver, BC in 2007, by the Faculty of Education of the University of British Columbia. The first speaker of the first symposium explains poetry "as a way to know the world, as a way to be and become in the world." There has been a symposium bi-annually in different cities around the world (mainly in Canada so far)! The symposium offers an opportunity to learn about how poetic inquiry can be used in many genres and fields of study, as well as how poetic inquiry is understood and applied across different cultures and educational backgrounds.

Sean Wiebe is a contributor to the International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry, and wrote a research paper called Poetic Inquiry: A Fierce, Tender, and Mischievous Relationship with Lived Experience

This paper aims to explore:

1. How the richness of lived experience can be sustained in poetic inquiry 
2. The terms fierce, tender, and mischievous as qualities of engagement that are often exemplified in the ways poetic inquirers live and work. 

Some of the main ideas are:

1. Examining Rapport and Hartill’s (2012) article. To review: E.g.: Poetic inquiry as a powerful way of engaging the world. What makes poetic inquiry powerful? And what the most suitable analytical methods are. 
2. Learning how the terms fierce, tender, and mischievous might have potential for enriching the discussion of poetic inquiry that are more methodological 

We also learned that in practice poetic inquiry was used within the Inside Age Care, which is an organization that helps people to realize the elders' living condition. They used the photo voice methodology as well as the poetic inquiry. Some photo and poetry exhibitions were organized by the organization. According to the article Poetic Inquiry: Creating poems from interviews with residents, the The author believed that “ special, dramatic language of poetry enables an imaginative and empathetic identification, drawing the audience into each residents’ uniquely intimate world.”