Poetry is her gift to nourish the soul

For Mifanwy Kaiser, prison was one of the most accomplished times of her life.

For years, Kaiser prepared inmates for high school GED testing in Oldham County, Ky. When she took the job teaching inmate students, only one or two out of seven would pass. So she had them write poetry about the information they had difficult retaining.

“I always use poetry in everything I do,” Kaiser said. Writing poems on the information they had trouble remembering helped the inmates emotionally connect with what they were learning.

Through Kaiser’s technique, seven out of seven who took the GED passed.

Kaiser moved to Huntington Beach in 1987 and continued using poetry as a teaching tool at Costa Mesa High School.

She retired years ago, but Kaiser just cannot seem to get the itch to teach out of her blood. In October 1999, Kaiser founded Tebot Bach, which means “little teapot” in Welsh. The group uses poetry to promote literacy and community involvement.

Part of the purpose was realized when Kaiser teamed up with the Orange County Rescue Mission, providing poetry workshops at homeless shelters in the county.

In June Tebot Bach received a $5,000 grant to support the workshops, and to help fund the publication of a collection of poems written by those participating in the classes.

In her time teaching the workshops, 58-year-old Kaiser, has regained something she has not felt since working in the prison years ago.

“Now working with the homeless somewhat gives that comparable feeling again,” Kaiser said. “It doesn’t get much better than that.”

On Friday, contributing authors will gather in Community Room 102 on the campus of Golden West College in Huntington Beach for a poetry reading and discussion.

The book contains poems by about 90 authors from the men’s and woman’s shelters in the Orange County Rescue Mission.

“We bring in model poems, talk about the craft issues in those poems, something like the use of imagery or metaphor,” Kaiser said. “We talk about line breaks and why they are important, whatever the poems lends itself to.”

The students then write their own poems focusing on the topic of that workshop, Kaiser said.

Women poets meet at the House of Hope shelter in Orange and men at New Life Shelter in Santa Ana. The workshops have given the homeless poets a voice.

“There is a healing process that takes place,” Kaiser said.

One night a student approached Kaiser, thanking her for the class. The student said it made her feel like she had worth again. For the students, the healing springs from engaging in the creative process, which most of them have not had the opportunity to explore, Kaiser said.

The event Friday at the college is free, and all who attend will receive a free copy of the book, “Voices to Come Home To: Poems from the Hearts of the Homeless.”

Coffee and cake will be served after the readings.

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The following poem appears in the book “Voices to Come Home to: Poems from the Hearts of the Homeless”:

The Mask

Repeated scars, like the rings of a tree.

She wears a mask of paint and powder.

Look closely around the eyes,

But you won’t see the many wounds

That have never healed completely.

On the brow, a drawn line hides

the remnants of the butt of a gun.

The bronzed-over imprint of a ring

on the cheek.

Contour corrects a break of the nose.

Lipstick covers a permanent split.

Lines of anxiety concealed.

Connect the dots of pain, and you

Will draw my face.

Like a clown committed to a life-

Long performance, I will always wear

The mask.

— Donna P.