Poetic Inquiry: How to Stay Focused as a State of Matter

By Camea Davis

The poem “How to Stay Focused as a State of Matter”  is one poem in a five-part series of conclusions from a poetic analysis of Season 2 of Why Change? A Podcast for a Creative GenerationSeason 2 of the Why Change? podcast. 

“How to Stay Focused as a State of Matter” synthesizes guests' responses to the question, “how do you stay focused?” This poem is intended to be read, not heard. It offers the reader three ways to stay focused based on the motifs of states of matter. 

The image of each state was spoken by a respondent. For example, one respondent noted “it’s not that concrete.” During the poetic analysis, the image of concrete stood out as significant and interesting to consider how people stay focused as a specific, clear, stationary way to be in the world. The lines in the column of the poem under concrete detail the very specific strategies respondents used to keep themselves focused such as making lists and having boundaries, both of which were mentioned by several respondents. 

Next, the idea of water as a way of staying focused captures when respondents expressed “going with the flow” or not committing to clear boundaries but following an intuitive guidance from themselves. 

Finally, the notion that oxygen is a way to stay focused captures when respondents said they were not focused and when they explained how they allow themselves to shift focus as is relevant. Several respondents described not being focused or not being interested in needing to focus on one thing, thus the poem ends with “we, the Creative Generation, are mostly oxygen.” To offer one point of commentary, considering that most respondents were creatives of some sort, this idea of centering focus on an elusive but necessary metaphor like oxygen makes sense as artists/creatives respond to creative impulses differently. 

This data in poetic form is (re)presented in three columns and one concluding line to offer the three ways of staying focused as equal. The length of the stanzas are indicative of how many people spoke to each state of being. The words in each column are respondents' comments verbatim. The italicized lines that start each column are poetic descriptions of the state of being offered by the poet-researcher and are not direct quotes. 

Read the text of How to Stay Focused as a State of Matter Data below. 

If you are interested in how poetic inquiry research analysis is conducted, learn more here. 

How to Stay Focused as a State of Matter

(We, the Creative Generation, are mostly oxygen.)