A Mile in Their Shoes: Poetic Inquiry for Qualitative Caregiver Research

Abstract

Poetic inquiry as a form of arts-based research can penetrate the complexity, ambiguity, and multidimensional nature of representing participant emotions. This methodological approach allows researchers to explore the sensitive intersection of competing emotions without flattening the layered and often conflicting experience of participants’ embodied experiences. In this article, we share participant-voiced poems generated from interviews with family caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients and invite readers to sit with how these poems transcend mere descriptions and instead offer an emotive experience that defies words alone.