A series of poetry workshops for people seeking freedom from their addictions in Wolverhampton has been labelled a success. The poetry workshops, launched free of charge each Tuesday at Thornhurst in Connaught Road in Wolverhampton by SUIT (Service User Involvement Team), Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council and Recovery Near You, have been running for a month facilitated by an experienced creative arts worker.
Thornhurst operates a recovery hub in Connaught Road to provide help and support to parents and their children. Thornhurst received £116,000 from Public Health England `s Capital Fund to provide a range of multi-agency support services with drug and alcohol provider Recovery Near You with a welcoming "home away from home" for vulnerable families to remove the stigma around receiving treatment.
Poet, solicitor and playwright Ian Henery, who runs the poetry workshops with one of the volunteers, said: "This is the age of addiction. It is a condition that is endemic and all-encompassing. In the Western World most people belong to a popular cult of individualism and materialism. The pursuit of our trivial daily desires becomes a daily ritual. Addiction can be to substances or behaviour. We are in an advanced sect of highly devotional and particular practices that have become ingrained." Ian believes addictions take the form of every hue: drugs, sex, relationships, work, food, smoking, alcohol, technology, pornography, hoarding and gambling. Addiction is when our natural biological desires, like the need for food, sex or relaxation, become prioritised to the point of destructiveness. "It is exacerbated by a culture", he says "that exploits this mechanic to sell cans of beer or the objectification of women. Each addictive pursuit becomes an enactment of peculiar faith that the action will solve the problem".
What the poetry workshops each Tuesday at Thornhurst explore is to consider the possibility of hope. "We look at hope and empowerment" explained Ian " that a different perspective is possible, that there is hope and that there is a different way. We are exploring nothing less than freedom from all of our addictions". Ian Henery has previously run poetry workshops for women seeking to exit the sex industry, drug addiction and for women and children surviving domestic abuse. Amongst his awards for this pioneering work are Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year by Birmingham Law Society and Social Entrepreneur of the New Millenium by Unltd.
Voices of Recovery
No Iambic Pentameter
No Villanelle or Roundalay,
Rhyming Arrangements or Closed Forms
No Odes;
Just words about empowerment,
Words of joyous recovery;
Words about hope, love and healing:
Just words.
Rebirth and an awakening,
Honest words about how you feel
These words of recovery
Heart-felt.
