ProMosaik Poetry is an open project of ProMosaik Art, which is convinced of the importance of poetry and poetry therapy in a hard time characterized by war, militarization, violence and power narratives. Although ProMosaik Poetry sees itself as an open project, the founder, Milena Rampoldi, decided at the end of 2025 to write the Manifesto of the main principles of ProMosaik Poetry, which should serve as impulses to bring the dimension of poetry, aesthetics and commitment to human rights and dialogue into the midst of the lives of people who yearn for upheaval and peace.
Poetry is not elitist
We speak out radically against any elitist vision of poetry. Poetry should be made accessible to all people. We are all poets. This universal access to poetry and also to poetry therapy is especially important for marginalized and discriminated groups, such as disadvantaged young people and women who have experienced violence. In the spirit of Audre Lorde in her seminal essay “Poetry is not a luxury”, the following applies:
“For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.”
Poetry is a universal form of expression for everyone. We can all act poetically. Poetry is also an expression of resistance, of the fact that we do not keep silent. Poetry is the voice of those who want to change the world from the bottom up. Anyone who regards poetry as a non-elitist force is primarily concerned with the poetry of marginalised groups and does not devalue it as unattractive poetry, but recognises its essential potential for transformation in society and politics.
Poetry promotes self-acceptance and social change
Poetry is a creative and emotional language that comes from the soul. It supports the expression of emotions and feelings. Poetry leads to self-knowledge and self-acceptance. You can say whatever in poetry.
You tell yourself and your own story in symbols and images. One analyzes one’s own biography through the poetic creative power, overcomes one’s own traumas and carries a positive transformative force from the inside out.
As a consequence, poetry influences society in the broadest sense of the word. Poetry has the potential for social and political change. Poetry can turn into the voice of the struggle for human rights.
Poetry reaches many people through its words and symbols and can change the world. Poetry positions poetry against war, militarism, political oppression, violence against women and the abuse of children.
Every biography always contains universal elements. Poetry is not only the mirror of the soul and experience of the poet, but of the world. Regardless of the culture, ethnicity, and religious affiliation of a poet, his biographical elements always contain universal, humanistic principles that connect people. As a consequence, poetry supports the bridging of any discrimination and racist attitudes.
Poetry is interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary
Poetry always creates mental images that are anchored in the emotional life of the person and their culture and society. This means that there is a close connection between poetry in particular and artistic expression in general. Poetry can be expressed in a duet with other art movements. Above all, we think of painting, sculpture, theatre, dance, music, embroidery, and photography.
Poetry is interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary in one. Interdisciplinarity means the interdisciplinary interaction harmoniously combining different disciplines in order to create innovation. This approach is still underestimated in poetry and requires a radical reorientation. In contrast to interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity does not lead to integration, but to the parallel processing of a topic in different special fields. Transdisciplinarity supports poetry and overcomes its elitist character, which is historically and culturally given and not questioned. This approach goes beyond academia by involving societal partners in the joint creation of knowledge that combines scientific and practical expertise to develop solutions that have a direct impact on society. As a result, poetry has an enormous potential as a transformative force in interpersonal relationships, society, and politics.
Poetry means dialogue
Poetry is dialogue according to the concept of Martin Buber. For me, in his works “I and You” and “Dialogue”, Martin Buber is a great role model for building a poetry of dialogue which becomes socially relevant and thanks to its innovative potential, is able to change and improve the local and global world. Poetry is always a place of encounter, between the poet and his self, between the poet and the reader and between the poet and society or the world in general. The poet never speaks to himself, but always to a “you”.
For ProMosaik Poetry, dialogue means commitment to peace and resistance against all forms of oppression, discrimination, exclusion, racism, and colonialism.
The world is getting more brutal step by step. The wars against Muslim countries are not abating, but at the same time in the West, violence is spreading on the streets, and many European countries are characterised by a blind asylum policy, right-wing extremist thinking, and uncooperative political thinking and non-action.
Wherever you look, there is little difference between brutality and stupidity, indifference and malice, violence against women, human trafficking, abuse of children and the spread of drugs and prostitution, hostility and calculus of power. In this context, I often think of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his theory of stupidity. It looks like I hit the bull’s-eye with the application of his theory in almost all areas, even if this did not produce more than a soft reformist thinking.
Authentic socialism has degenerated and is bowing to the power of the gun lobbies. The anarchists have mutated into an elite force. People’s lives are alienated or emptied of any meaning. The serious economic problems that plague the entire capitalist world and tear apart the gap between rich and poor increasingly give a picture of a dangerous Europe, without safety on the streets, characterized by narcissistic ways of thinking, a harsh demographic decline and a complete passivation of the population, which is shut down by bread and circuses, forced digitization and bare superficiality.
These phenomena are accompanied by a radicalization of right-wing ideologies directed against migrants and asylum seekers, and the complete exclusion/expulsion of the dimension of beauty and truth from people’s lives.
The brutal genocide of Israel in the Gaza Strip and the advance of armed Zionism with its expansionist-imperialist goals, which have now reached their peak with the attack on the sovereign state of Iran, the absolute lack of civil courage in people’s everyday lives, turn all ideologies upside down.
Political opponents are no longer fought by dialectics and intelligence, but by irrational demonization machines. If you look at pacifist parties that mutate into their flip side and stir up hatred against people and religions, if you look at the oppression of man by man and the indifference that determines the world stage, you wonder what else you can do against such a world. Our lives are limited and our resources are even more so. What remains for us are our voices, which we may or may not raise, and this with all possible consequences and in the knowledge that our voices can be smothered.
In the spirit of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, I don’t see the “Thou” as an object, but as a subject. Moved into politics, this would then mean that the “Other” is not orientalized in the sense of Edward Said, but recognized as a subject.
The struggle against violence and brutality requires the promotion of social justice and diversity. This, in turn, presupposes a different social contract than the capitalist-imperialist one, whose crisis is hitting us just as hard. And this presupposes that people communicate with each other and engage with the points of view and ideas of others. This communication requires the elimination of social alienation, which is controlled by those in power and their demagoguery. Finally, the fight against violence and brutality presupposes an end to the system of rule, which is based precisely on this violence and brutality.
Exclusion and marginalization lead to even more violence. The silencing and suppression of problems promotes violence. Where words are no longer uttered, where one no longer advocates for diplomacy, there the weapons of the post-capitalist drone manufacturers of the digital era utter their “words”. We therefore take a clear stand against the ‘right wing’, against totalitarian regimes and Zionism, which we consider to be a right-wing extremist and destructive ideology of an apartheid state that presents itself as the only democracy in the Middle East.
Poetry is a healing force for the individual and society
For ProMosaik, poetry therapy is an important aspect of poetry and working with poetry as a healing force for the individual and for society. I would now like to summarize some of the main ideas of poetry therapy. Poetry therapy is an innovative approach to art therapy and assumes that writing poetic verses supports self-development. In the contemporary context, especially in its development since the year 2000, poetry therapy increasingly focuses on the biographical aspect of poetry.
Through the use of poetry, it is possible, especially for women who have experienced trauma and violence, to socialize self-experiences and retell life stories in the form of metaphorical images and symbols. Poetry therapy strengthens self-esteem and resilience. It builds a bridge between psychotherapy and social psychology and psychological sociology.
It has a healing effect on the individual and society. However, poetry therapy is marginalised in the field of psychology and insufficiently integrated into sociology as a form of therapy.
What should set poetry therapy apart for me is its collaborative method, which for marginalized and traumatized people can help build self-esteem not only as an individual, but also as a group. This applies, for example, in refugee work, in working with prisoners, disadvantaged children, with discriminated groups such as former slaves, prostitutes, victims of human trafficking, sexual violence, domestic violence and violence of any kind against children.
The advantage of poetry is that it is a universal form of expression of the human soul, which transcends cultures and expresses its potential for change across religions.
In the setting of poetry therapy, poetry is transformed into a force for problem-solving and the creative development of alternative solutions for society and politics. Poetry therapy should also go beyond the scope of psychotherapy and assert itself as socio-therapy. The contribution of poetry to mental health has been proven. It is now also known in medicine that poetry is able to heal human emotions and increase well-being. All who write poetic verses revise their own biography to gain better access to their emotions. Negative thoughts, which are transformed into positive thoughts through poetry therapy, promote mental self-confidence. And this new self-confidence has a positive impact on society as a potential for change. Just as the socio-political solutions in a society are always open, so too is a poem always open. Poetry offers us the opportunity to explore alternative possibilities and to believe in change as real change.
Poetry is political
In this Manifesto, I would like to contradict the thesis according to which poetry is passive and irrational, while politics is the expression of active action. I believe that poetry is always political, regardless of whether it involves a direct involvement with political issues or is seen as a retreat from the political field of action.
Why poetry is always political and can only be political can be explained quite simply by the fact that every poet is part of a society and is therefore politically involved in it.
By positive political poetry I mean any kind of poetry that advocates for the change or reform or revolution of the given socio-political conditions and thus fights against racism, discrimination, injustice of any kind and advocates for human rights in the broadest sense. This type of poetry opposes unjust regimes, oppression, war, inequality, or political violence.
Poetry is a persuasive force that calls for political change. Poetry possesses powerful means of upheaval and can spur and influence the struggle for social justice and human rights in a given political environment.
Poetry can bring about political changes and resist the current oppression of the people by the people in power. Poetry is not a “luxury” in this area either, but a common task of all citizens, because poetry is not elitist. Thus, political poetry embraces the ideas of all, since we are all poets.
Poetry is the voice of colonized peoples, oppressed people, political prisoners, freedom fighters, and abused women and children. Poetry is the voice against racism and for inclusion and communication. It is also the voice of oppressed social classes, migrants, people with disabilities, degraded children, slaves and all young people who fight for freedom and self-determination in authoritarian regimes.
Poetry is a means to stand up for human rights
Poetry is an essential method for the struggle for human rights. Poetry expresses the psychological discomfort that arises when people are wronged. Poetry for human rights can be written by poets who analyse and denounce human rights violations. But it can also be the voice of the victims. Poets who advocate for human rights write for peace, women’s rights, the rights of children, refugees and disadvantaged groups of migrants, prostitutes and prisoners, to name a few examples.
However, they also denounce social injustice, societal imbalance, militarism and the war economy, corruption and sexual violence, as well as discrimination and racism against marginalized groups in society. An important theme of poetry for human rights is also the poetry of resistance to any form of colonialism and neo-colonialism, such as Zionism, which dehumanizes the Palestinians and is considered a doctrine of justification for the genocide in Gaza.
