Enacting Artful Knowing Through Collective Poetic Inquiry: “Space, Movement, Entanglement, Ambiguity, and Flow”

The article traces the authors’ polyvocal work at the interface of poetry, social cohesion, and in/justice in higher education, asking, “How is our poetic knowing artful inquiry?”, “How do we enact poetic artful inquiry?”, “What does poetic artful inquiry produce?”, and “Why does poetic artful inquiry matter?” Eight collective poetic artful inquiries were explored using a multilayered analysis design characterized by a progression of ever-more-concise poetic forms. The study was founded on the reflexive ubuntu principle of connectivity, caring for, and growing with others. Composing and interpreting three layers of poetry—pantoum poetry clusters, tanka poems, and a lantern poem—we identified the interconnected concepts of space, movement, entanglement, ambiguity, and flow, showing why and how collective poetic inquiry contributes to artful knowing in higher education. We offer this poetic conceptualization as a contribution to understanding enactments of artful inquiry, and encourage others to take it in new directions.