Poetry

  • Dr Jennifer Harrison is the Manager of The Dax Poetry Collection and Chair of the World Psychiatry Association’s Art and Psychiatry Section

The goals of The Cunningham Dax Collection’s Poetry Collection are to develop and care for a database of poetry on themes of mental illness and/or psychological trauma. Access of works into the Poetry Collection database is through The Poetry Collection Advisory Group. The three criteria for acceptance were developed in line with The Cunningham Dax Collection: 1) Lived experience, 2) Educational value, 3) Aesthetic merit. There is a subcategory of poems which are considered for access when the ‘lived experience’ component is the ‘lived experience’ of a close family member of a person with mental illness or experience of psychological trauma. This allows the experiences of children, parents and siblings to be considered.

The ways in which the Poetry Collection is used, could be used or has been used include: –

  1. Active recruitment of volunteers to further activities of The Poetry Collection including volunteers to specifically assist with poetry activities. 
  2. The development of a library of poetry for example Australian Book Review donates their poetry review book copies annually to The Dax Poetry Collection for The Dax Centre’s library.
  3. Collaborate in The Dax Centre events. We promote active integration of a poem or poems from The Poetry Collection in The Dax Centre activities (exhibitions, publications, events).
  4. Social media. The poetry of The Dax Poetry Collection can be seen on Instagram.
  5. Discussion events. A program of discussion events that feature poets from the collection (and often academics, writers and others) on topics such as ‘Poetry and Identity’, ‘Outsider Poetry’, ‘Fairy Tales and Fancy: the mind of the child in poetry’, ‘The Poetry of Sylvia Plath and Peter Porter’ .
  6. Research. The Dax Poetry Collection database is a rich research potential for students interested in developing research into poetry and mental illness/ mental health.  
  7. Book launches. Post-SANE there have been a number of launches at The Dax Centre of the new works by poets from The Dax Poetry Collection. One of these was a collaboration with Anti-slavery Australia.
  8. Community workshops.
  9. School workshops.
  10. Conference presentations. Jennifer Harrison has presented at numerous national and international conferences since 2011.
  11.  Collaborations. The Advisory Group is comprised of a broad number of perspectives: high school education, University of Melbourne academia, the CEO of Australian Poetry, two lived experience perspectives.
  12. Grant submissions.
  13. Publications, radio programs, videos.

To the eyes of the seer
nothing is nonsense
change is simply an invention;

to the ears of the sage
all sound is music
speech can be more than convention

Geoff Prince
Excerpt 1 from Asides in the seeking of sanity:
Fragments from a Living Poethic,
Papyrus Publishing 200