Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words

by Kim Rosen, V (formerly Eve Ensler) (Foreword)

Can someone really be saved by a poem? In Kim Rosen’s book, the answer is a resounding "Yes!" Poetry, the most ancient form of prayer, is a necessary medicine for our a companion through difficulty; a guide when we are lost; a salve when we are wounded; and a conduit to an inner source of joy, freedom, and insight. Whether you are a lover of poetry or have yet to discover its power, Rosen offers a new way to experience a poem. She encourages you to feel the poem as you might an affirmation or sacred text, which can align every level of your being. In an uncertain world, Saved by a Poem is an emphatic call to cultivate the ever-renewable resources of the heart. Through poetry, the unspeakable can be spoken, the unendurable endured, and the miraculous shared. Weaving teaching, story, verse, and memoir, Rosen guides you to find a poem that speaks to you so you can take it into your life and become a voice for its wisdom in the world.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Writing, Art, Spirituality, Reference, Memoir

254 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

An inspiring book. A great invitation to get to know some poems in ways that holding them in your heart, line by line and speaking them out-loud, new every time, can do. I now know why I started putting together a Word file labeled "poetry". I think I'll start with Mary Oliver. (And thank you, Mary Jo, for sharing one of your heart poems with us at la Casa for grace when you were visiting--and for getting to know Kim and her work so well-you are both gifts!)

[Maryjoamani · Rating 5 out of 5]

A self-help book of the best kind...a memoir by Kim Rosen on the "transformative power of words", encouraging us to memorize poetry as a way to bring meaning and comfort to our lives. Full of practical how-to's and poetry models. The accompanying CD of poems recited by well-known poets is perfect.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a surprise how much this book spoke to me -- and even more when I experimented with the practice of "learning a poem by heart." The stories and poems were moving and the practice itself even more so. Loved.

[Sonja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just listened to the beautiful audio version of Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words By Kim Rosen. I have also read the hard copy. To listen to the book read is transformative. The gifts you receive are too many to list. Besides hearing specific great poems read, one also gets an invitation to enjoying poetry in the unique way of Kim Rosen—relax your mind with poetry, dare not understand, just listen as if to music. It’s true we just enjoy music. Why not do the same with poetry!
She teaches about the joys of poetry, showing how wonderful it can be to share with others but also reading it aloud alone. The stories of how poetry has healed her and others are also woven into the book.
In Chapter 3 Kim includes the story of how poetry saved me in another life, a time when I was working deadening jobs and being a socialist union activist. I have kept the pieces of paper I wrote down the lines I was memorizing and chanting while I worked in assembly lines.
It is a book to cherish and listen to. I must say the audio version is an even better experience than the written book. Thank you for this, Kim Rosen.

[Joyce Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inklings brought me to the doorstep of returning to poetry as a writing genre after three decades. This book made me run across the threshold to greet poetry again like a long, lost relative. Saved by a Poem gave me the last bits of information I needed to understand the role poetry plays in my life and in my mixed bag of healing arts.

Kim Rosen has written an inspiring guidebook that stirs the heart about why poetry is so important and why a person should not choose to live without it. There is ample technical information about craft while teaching poetry appreciation through learning to recite poems by heart. The accompanying CD is a wonderful orientation with recited poems by well-known and perhaps not so well known poets. I listened to it first, and I want to listen again now that I'm done with the book.

Since reading "Saved, I have started a poetry blog (http://stitchedverse.blogspot.com) and joined my local Sacramento Poetry Center. It's great to be back!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book, despite it's need of some more editing. (There are sections that repeat a turn of phrase multiple times, and then not again in the book. It's as if some of the parts were written in chunks, but not during the same phase of Ms. Rosen's life.) But this is a quibble.

This books is part memoir, part how-to, part introduction to poetry reading. It taught me the difference between memorizing and "learning by heart". I think a fair distillation of the book is expressed in this quote from page 200.

To put this kind of experience [the grace that comes from speaking poems you love] into words is difficult. It can so easily sound far-fetched or like a testimonial of a religious experience that may have been authentic at the time but gets list in translation. Yet this sudden grace is not exotic or unusual. It happens all the time when people give voice to the poems that speak the truth of their souls. 

[ofwoodsandbone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me realise how fragile and beautiful poetry is. In a landscape of self obsession, perfection and having the latest 'things' this book reminds me that in other countries poets can bring peace with their words

[Jody · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually just skimmed this book. I don't think I was in the right mood to read the chirpy "look what poetry did!" text.It has some interesting concepts though.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on and off with other poetry books. I like it and it needs a good editing.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book with considerable reservations. The concerns had to do with what I perceive as mawkish sentimentality in some modern poetry, and this book seemed as though it might participate (or not?) in this tendency. Amusingly, it does, but in a way that also comes across as a very mature and sound (no pun intended) manner.

The book addresses the process of choosing a poem that speaks to you, and spending serious time with it, reading it silently at times, but also aloud to yourself and to others. This is not the same as memorization, but perhaps more like an internalized 'cooking'. If there are parts of the poem that feel wrong, then that is actually a great point to ponder as one continually processes the poem.

The text of the book reads extremely well, although it continually offers a 'new-age' feel that makes me skittish. Interestingly, while I enjoyed reading Rosen's prose about poetry, when I tried to listen to the provided CD, it came across as dreamy and mawkish. Alas.

We all have poems that speak to us. My own list comes from poets like Yeats, Shelley, Eliot, Shakespeare, and even Ritsos. The benefit of this book is that it offers up some additional ways to confront our existing (or new) poems to better understand the poems themselves, as well as the meaning they contain for us.

[Susan Marrier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never understood poetry, and found the analysis of metre etc. we did in high school English class most uninteresting. I stumbled across Kim Rosen's book and now am totally hooked. I've collected poems for a few years, and have a few anthologies, but am now inspired to go back and re-read with new eyes, or maybe a new heart, and start learning some "by heart". Her very readable insights and analyses, sharing of personal stories, suggestions of how to approach reading and learning poems of all sorts, her lists of favourite poems and books of poetry, plus the extensive practices at the end, have convinced me to buy my own copy of the book (I've been reading it on Cloud Library). I checked out some of her YouTube videos of Poetry Concerts (poetry reading with improvised music), and found them quite moving. I'm of an age where I cannot hope to get hundreds (maybe even dozens) of poems into the "fourth chamber" of my memory, but it will be a good exercise for the brain, and the spirit to learn even a few "by heart". Highly recommended for anyone, no matter what your experience with poetry so far.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Kim Rosen and her book through an online class I took with Kayleen Asbo's Mythica Foundation. What a treasure! I swallowed and gulped this book down as if it was an oasis in the desert. Kim Rosen's prose is, in itself, poetry and a joy to read.
I have always loved poetry. I've written poetry, written about poetry, shared poetry, absorbed poetry, been transported and ground by poetry. Yet, Kim's poetry experiences, references, and practices shared in this book shows me that poetry truly is a bottomless well of truth and beauty. There is always more to learn, to discover, to enjoy, to share, to practice poetry.
Thank you Kim Rosen for your work! Thank you Kayleen for introducing Kim to me!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the practice of learning poems by heart and then speaking them out loud. It is about living with the poetry and what it opens up in you and others. It is about remembering, finding lost parts of yourself, and forgetting. I am always looking for the book that has the answers, and parts of this book felt like it could be the answer. I have rarely spoken poetry out loud. I am going to try sometime when I am alone. It feels like this could be part of finding my voice. How obvious it all seems as I type this, but to be heard, I must speak. This is a book I will reread in the future and I am sure get new things from.

[Marjorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explains the power of poetry and how reading and memorizing a poem will bring new discoveries. It seems there were tears shed in each chapter. At times it seemed to me to be a lot of naval gazing but to be fair this book is about being saved by poetry. We were not treated to anything like The Lion And Albert/Marriott Edgar or The Licorice Fields/John Betjeman or Shoein' Pigeye/Baxter Black. Laughter and delight is good too! For anyone interested in poetry this book is an excellent read.

[Scott Wiggerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the first half of the book more engaging than the second half, which focused almost exclusively on oral presentation of poems, what Rosen calls "learning by heart," not memorization, what she also calls "writing on the bones," a way of incorporating a poem into the body. Her selection of poems is good, if limited.

[Lisal Kayati Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a lapsed poet no longer! What a wonderful, inspiring read. A keeper for me. I have resurrected all of my favorites and am practicing daily. I had taken for granted that I had a poem framed in every room of my house. I’m doing something right…

[Jess Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems as a vibration

Reading a poem can make anyone feel good if they allow it. How about reading the poem and feeling the vibration from it? That is what the author is teaching us here and it’s powerful!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it got a bit repetitive, I appreciate the author's love of poetry and the many helpful suggestions she provided for taking a poem "into one's heart". The audio download of poems, read by a variety of poets, was a pleasant bonus.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some excellent ideas on how to engage with poetry and tips for how (and why) to memorize poems.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

we need to be saved by a poem.

[Stacy Doney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will convince you of the value of memorizing poems.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderufl book by Kim Rosen that talks bout the power of learning poems by heart. Read it for the second time!

[Patricia Keeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that added so much to my life...saved my life!!!

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Perhaps not every page, I am not the biggest fan of a super sincere American style. But it was easy enough to filter that in order to absorb some great treasures of poetry, heartfelt reflections on its meaning, and a moving attempt to explore the power of poetry to companion us through the experiences of life. It was a delight to be introduced to new poems and poets as well as to revisit familiar favourites and to see them with new eyes, hear more vibrant depths, as they were situated in real human stories around the world. Imagine Mary Oliver's 'The Journey' among a group of girls at an FDM rescue centre in Kenya, Naoimi Shibab Nye's 'Kindness' where someone is losing everything they think they are, Rumi's 'Dying' in the face of incapacity and self doubt ...

Kim Rosen is a performer of poems and has a deep belief in the power of learning poetry by heart. She draws on her inner repertoire in a very similar way to the canon of a holy book, finding words and expressions of human reality that enable her in different life situations, and give language to that which she longs for and wishes to be. In this book she dialogued gently with many parts of my life and her offering will remain with me for a long time.

'I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?'

Mary Oliver

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I was sad when I came to the last few pages because I didn't want it to end. I savored it, reading 2-3 pages at a time. I have wanted to understand poetry for a long time, bought books, tried to get what they were saying, but got frutrated or felt stupid because I didn't get them. I discovered from reading Kim Rosen's book that poetry is all over the place - in prayer, in songs, in my favorite quotes. Kim Rosen guides you through understanding the power of poems, and she gives examples of how they connect people, often people with opposite points of view on politics or whatever, but they find a common positive connection. It's all about how the poem affects you, how it makes you feel or how you resonate with it, and when you don't feel a certain way or resonate it's an invitation to look at why it doesn't. It's not about being wrong. I loved the part about looking at your forgetfulness. You have a favorite poem, but you keep forgetting one line over and over, that's telling you something or at least prompting you to look at what you're missing. She also suggests that you read aloud even if it's to yourself. Wow! what a difference that made. I'm now reading my daily inspiration books aloud, which I now undersand are poetry! I love the way she writes. There is also a CD that comes with the book of different people reciting a favorite poem and then talk about why the poem is significant for them. At the end of the book she lists resources that were very helpful to me. I did finish the book, and I'll probably reread it again in the near future. I'm now excited about poetry. Can you tell? ha

[Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saved by a Poem demonstrates the power of poetry to heal and restore both the spirit and the mind. Kim Rosen takes the reader beyond reading poetry through to learning it by heart and writing poetry as well, although writing is not a "requirement" to benefiting from poetry. She distinguishes memorization from learning by heart, and describes how committing to a poem taps into the inner source of strength, healing, joy and freedom.

A well-written and interesting book, I was encouraged to make poetry a part of both the creative and meditative part of my life.

[Richard Quis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Spell Breaker

I read this book while healing from bladder surgery. Poems have always intimated me but Kim Rosen has a special genius to help someone transcend their fears. This book got me through some tough times and gave me the courage to finally tackle a poem I was skeptical I could handle – Dante’s Divine Comedy. While I’ve been to Hell and back with Dante and my surgery, thanks to Kim Rosen, I was better able to manage my emotions while visiting some very dark places.
Richard Quis, coauthor[ASIN:0984907602 Thinking Anew: Harnessing the Power of Belief]]

[Pat Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, to some day write a poem that impacts like the ones Rosen sites! With the universe of poetry in books and now many amazing live poetry performances available on the web, I use poetry more and more often to shift my perspective. Now I just have to take her recommendation at hand and memorize some.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading how poetry can save and transform lives. It was an affirmation of my own experience with poetry and it felt good to know there are other powerful stories out there. I also loved the cd that came with the book. I'll be sharing many of the anecdotes with my students.

[Ivan Granger · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say? Read the first few pages and you won’t want to stop. An exploration of the power of poetry to open our lives in surprising, healing ways and, at the same time, an engaging personal memoir. Highly recommended.