The Art of Changing Metaphors | Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer | TEDxPaonia

Ever feel like you’re trapped by your own limited frame of reference? Poet Rosemerry Trommer believes that our sense of the world and what is possible is limited by the frames and metaphors mapped in our neural circuitry. In this talk, she shares new research in cognitive theory, touching personal stories, and her own enthralling poems, to illustrate how powerfully metaphors affect our perception.
Video produced by Jay Canode & David Jacobson
Intro animation by Adam Smith
Intro music “So Good To Be True” by Host Bodies / hostbodies
Western Slope Poet Laureate Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s poetry has appeared in O Magazine, in back alleys, on A Prairie Home Companion and in her children’s lunch boxes. Her most recent collection is The Less I Hold. Clients include Think 360, Craig Hospital, Hospice and Camp Coca Cola. She served as San Miguel County’s first poet laureate, directed the Telluride Writers Guild for 10 years, and co-hosts the Talking Gourds Poetry club.
www.wordwoman.com/
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@truthala]

I love your whole way of being and presenting images of life, with words of strife and redemption, finding solace in the pain and pain in your world, as you flip it like a coin in a toss, like a trout in the pond, like a weaver and a weaving, like a message in a bottle, like a line in a play, like a character in the movie, toying with the roles and the rules, until the whole frame of existence is flying through the space in my mind and I transcend space and time and discover whole new worlds appearing out of my mind.

[@rosemerryt]

this, Don, is soooo yesly in the spirit of play and game changing and frame changing--thank you!

[@KristinPedemonti]

Thank you Rosemerry for your gift of poignancy and profundity in the language of so many metaphors, indeed what might we see differently with a new frame? As a fledgling Narrative Therapy Practitioner, I've been utilizing the metaphors of Kintsugi, the Japanese art the honoring of the cracks by repair with glue and gold, celebrating the vessel rather than discarding or treating as forever damaged. We explore notions of broken (what does it mean? whose story is it anyway? many layers!, the pieces and, glue (what does it symbolize) who/what assists us the mend, the gold that illuminates. It's been heartening to witness survivors of abuse, traffiking, violence and well, life, to reframe their stories. Thank YOU again for your multi-stories, multi-lyriced poetry and metaphors!

[@rosemerryt]

thanks, Kristin! Yes--kintsugi provides such a powerful metaphor! Thank you for this comment--and wishing you great joy in your practice with Narrative Therapy!

[@KristinPedemonti]

@@rosemerryt thank you. Honoring the beauty we all are as 'cracked' pots.

[@mishell4906]

I decided to explore metaphors today. I watched several videos and you summed it all up...or rather opened it all up🦋🌻absolutely wonderful,essential speech...or dance⚘Thank you and God Bless you ❤

[@rosemerryt]

Hey, thank you MiShell--love that shift in framing from summing to opening!

[@RelationshipbyDesign]

Brilliant! Such an amazing storyteller! Rosemerry you offer us new and creative ways of shaping and living into this experience of being human and connecting with the very essence of life itself.

[@rosemerryt]

Thank you for this very thoughtful reply! Yes! Connecting with the very essence of life itself!

[@judithbrice1169]

Wonderful, captivating talk!

[@wayopens1]

What an exquisite, creative, captivating talk!

[@rosemerryt]

Thank you, Sylvie! I am glad you enjoyed it!

[@KDHunktabunkta]

This is brilliant. Thank you, Rosemerry!

[@rosemerryt]

thanks, Katherine!

[@29gardenia]

Joy to see and hear your words of wisdom. :)

[@rosemerryt]

Thank you, Judith!

[@namasterising]

finally something unique and colorful and creative, thank you Rosemerry!

[@rosemerryt]

you're welcome! I hope you find new metaphors, and if you do, let me know!

[@SimplyCelebrate]

This is SO GREAT! I love this fresh look at how we can experience our lives in new ways through metaphor! Great presentation. Love your singing. LOVE that donkey poem in response to Hafiz! Congratulations!!!

[@rosemerryt]

Sherry, thank you ... so fun to get to know you through email and media. Hugs to you, sister I've yet to meet in person

[@neeluvikas]

Awesome, loved your energy, i am so sharing this with all i know,waiting to see more vidoes from you

[@rosemerryt]

Thank you! If you think of frames you consciously change, please let me know!

[@smofc2010]

Very clever, Insightful, inspirational. Thank you

[@rosemerryt]

thank you! I think we need a lot of new metaphors about right .... now.

[@r.a.p5121]

Wow this was very inspiring!

[@rosemerryt]

thank you! let me know if you find new metaphors, or old ones, for that matter.

[@truthala]

YOu are so very extraordinary

[@rosemerryt]

Wow! Thank you! What a great response!

[@ZurkUrk]

I so love the donkey poem.😊 Time to look for some new metaphors myself I think!

[@rosemerryt]

thank you! Let me know if you find new metaphors ... i see you wrote this 8 months ago, perhaps by now some have shown up!

[@actors504]

Can anyone translate this metaphor for me PLEASE!!!!!! "she is an angel who lost her feet" PLEASE PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME TRANSLATE THE MEANING OF THIS

[@ericparker163]

With no feet, all that was left was her wings, no choice but to fly.