An Online Pandemic Poetry Project
by Ballarat-based creative Megan J Riedl.
community catharsis through poetry
Mirroring my practice of personal therapy via poetry (such as my Pandemic Poetry series), this project will invite people who have experienced lockdown/s due to COVID 19 to share their experiences – positive, negative and neutral – by way of an anonymous confession.
This is creative writing as community therapy, where participants are offered a reflection and validation of their experiences over the past eighteen months of lockdown/s. The final poetry pieces will explore commonalities in how people coped during lockdown; what is fundamental to survival, and what is considered taboo by humans in lockdown.
poems from your confessions
I will collate the confessions submitted via this website, then analyse and edit them, crafting them into two final poetry pieces.
The first will be an interactive digital poem, which allows readers to follow a choose-your-own adventure style path into a number of possible endings. This is an exciting new modality of my poetic practice.
The second will be a spoken word poem/s. I am interested in how archetypal voices might be found, and brought to life, from the anonymous confessions – who are we in lockdown and what do we sound like?
The final creative pieces will be published online via this website and Instagram in December. Sign up to the mailing list at the bottom of the page to receive updates directly into your inbox.
What do you need to get off your chest about Lock down?
Your confession might be a secret happening during lockdown. It could be an epiphany you had in the shower, or a revelation you had while chatting to a friend. It could be a major life change you made, or a simple observation of the mundane but beautiful. Use one or more of these prompts to help you get started:
What did you do in lockdown that you’ve never done before? Or that you’ll never do again?
What was your most profound realisation about your life?
Where did you find strength?
How did your relationships change in unexpected ways?
What did you notice about your surroundings that brought you joy?
What did you miss the most?
What was something that couldn’t you stand?
how to join the project
Submissions are now closed. Watch this space for the publication of the final poetry pieces.
SUPPORT THE POET
This project is not funded by any grants or sponsors. Please consider supporting me financially.
Get project updates
need help?
Contact Megan for assistance or any questions about the project.
