Creating Group Poetry Using the Exquisite Corpse Exercise

Group leaders in substance use treatment programs often use tools to engage with clients. One such tool we use is the Exquisite Corpse Exercise. 

The Exquisite Corpse Exercise is a collaborative game with origins in the Surrealist movement, designed to unlock creativity and explore the unexpected. Participants take turns writing sections of a story or a poem or drawing parts of a picture without seeing what the previous person contributed. This method results in a piece that can be whimsical, bizarre, and often surprisingly coherent, reflecting the collective unconscious of the group. It's a testament to the power of unplanned collaboration and serves as a fun way to engage with others in the creative process.

Jamie McQuarrie, MSW, CAC, DUI Program Coordinator, shared, "The best poems I've ever seen after doing it in the Residential Program groups, DUI groups, or previous IOP groups." Jamie was first introduced to this activity at least a decade ago when we had a poetry group consisting of volunteers from CSU. He has been using the tool ever since. 

Below is a poem created through recent Exquisite Corpse Exercises. The poem starts with the first person writing a line, which goes to the next person, who writes another line and folds the previous line so the next person sees the prior line. This continues as the poem makes its way around the group. 

Kindness in the Mirror

My Mirror is broken

My hand is bleeding

I can’t make the shaking stop

All my tears … drop

But the memories never will

They will never leave me like the scars on my heart

Catching myself as I fall apart

I have to remember how strong I am

No drugs or alcohol

Helps me stay out of the system

Helps me become a better person

I wield kindness as my strongest weapon

My kindness is the way I hold my pain at bay

***

The Sound of Never Cared

Sounds of screaming in my head

A constant battle I hate to deal with

Drink at least 2 cups of water a day

And eat 3 meals a day

To make myself healthy and strong

To be able to able to heal the wounds no one else can see

Is to tell yourself everything will be alright

When absolutely nothing will be okay

And it’s hard to make my feet move

When I stupidly pray to up above

I don’t know what fair means

I have never experienced “fair”.

You never were there, you never cared.