Breaking research boundaries: a poetic representation of life in an aged care facility.

This article presents five poems constructed from the transcripts of interviews with older Australians who had recently moved into residential aged care. This process, known as poetic inquiry, is an emotionally engaging way to interpret, represent, and communicate research data. The poems provide an engaging, evocative, and almost visceral experience of life in aged care. Yet despite notable exceptions, poetic inquiry has received relatively little attention from psychologists. As well as sharing five poems, this article explores why psychology has not yet actively engaged with arts-based research, proposes a rationale for greater engagement, and outlines some key learnings from my engagement (as a psychologist) with poetic inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]