Death and Rebirth Group Poems
The following contribution includes two group poems by the students and teaching staff of the Diploma in Relational Gestalt Psychotherapy at Scarborough Counselling & Psychotherapy Training Institute (SCPTI). These writings were created during the death and bereavement module in February 2024, where we explored the relational gestalt way of being with loss and the possibility that endings are beginnings. Trainees shared symbols of rebirth through music, poetry and pictures. Each person contributed a line or more - or a space - and these words were then curated into group poems for the ‘dark and light’ theme for this issue.
Photo by Anne Augustine
Death
Death is a house that is not a home anymore.
A terrifying adventure, a voiding of life.
The forever changing cycle of the universe –
who knows what’s beyond.
Death is birth! A chance for growth.
All shall be well, and all shall be well,
and all manner of things shall be well:
Hold back. Don’t hold back. Just be love.
Death is a void for those left behind,
and an enveloping darkness for the dying –
maybe soft – forever just beyond us.
The reason I am here. The reason for living.
Death is the beginning of our eternity.
The water I always have, do, and
always will swim in. Clammy, cold,
rotting and slowly happening now.
Death is motivating: The risk of death
shows me the risk of not doing ‘the thing’ –
and then dying anyway. It’s the pain
of expecting someone to call.
Death is intriguing when I hear about near-
death experiences. A connection at soul
level with the universal energy. The now
and forever eternal heartbeat of the universe.
Death is in how we live. It’s the physical
ending of an individual existence but also
the beginning of a collective sorrow.
It is not one thing. Death is dancing with me.
Death is a holding – she holds me when
I can’t bear the pain of living anymore.
I am borrowed from the earth; the returning
of myself to her. Life’s one true love.
Italicised text in poem: Quotation from Julian of Norwich.
Photo by Anne Augustine
Rebirth
Rebirth is silent yet vigorous growth
using what others left for us.
Remembering all that was in the midst of what is
and finding a way to put one foot in front of another.
Rebirth is suffering carried on, but transformed.
Arising ever-rooted in darkness
energetic intention, nourished from below.
A fragile mess. After an unravelling,
there’s something beautiful and new from disentangled
tangle. Precious, innocent, fleeting,
potential of everything in all directions.
Rebirth is the snowdrops that poke through January’s
cold, barren ground. Or walking among the cypress trees
holding hands with my friend Maite, under the powerful
Andalusian sunlight - a strong blue sky,
with mountains and birdsong all around.
Rebirth is a glimmering of long-lost hope.
A shaking off the heaviness,
struggling to crawl out of the darkness,
an awakening. Letting go whilst holding within.
Rebirth is an uncomfortable tussling, like a bud emerging
from under the frost: cold and bare and pure -
an act of courage.
An eye to my soul.
It’s a transformation, growth and expansion
of the conscious.
A temporary glimpse of a future not yet known.
Rebirth is____________________.
Rebirth is ancient newness. Part of the cycle
written in the moon, sea, trees, earth
and my body - me. A new way of being.
Blooms of colour. An adventure.
A deep meeting with your true self,
Rooting you down and reaching you forward
with purity into a new way of moving
through the world.
Rebirth is a cycle; building new ground.
Beyond hope or imagining,
it is the tiny spark of light that says,
I am here, you are not alone.
Scarborough Psychotherapy Counselling & Training Institute is the foremost therapy training institute in North Yorkshire. We have been offering a range of accredited professional training courses in counselling & psychotherapy for over twenty-five years.
