Poetry Writing and the Dialectic of Closeness. Creative Encounters with Nairobi Urban Sentinels

This article provides reflexive feedback on a four hands poetry writing experiment as a field method for fostering expression in people unaccustomed to it. To complement my in-depth interviews with private security guards at the gates of fenced residences in Nairobi (Kenya), I conducted several poetry workshops with them between 2015 and 2017. Although this medium is no more authentic than conventional storytelling, poetry as a four hands practice allowed us to overcome inhibiting dualities (I/the Other; authentic/non authentic; here/there). Retrospectively, I argue that this collective work should be understood as the expression of a dialectic of closeness between the two coauthors, i.e. a codified oscillation game between two sets of attitudes: maintaining an explicit distance and attempting micro-intrusions. This dialectic may lead us to reconsider our relationship with the produced text, making it an independent third protagonist, but nevertheless necessary for the encounter.