LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 357 I am my Own Voice: The Analysis of Imagery, Sound and Sense and Self-Culture from EFL Mindful Poetry Kadek Sonia Piscayanti Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha sonia.piscayanti@undiksha.ac.id Abstract This research is aimed at looking at poetry as a soul of society. It brings about the representation of self- culture in the poet’s life. It is the representation of mindfulness within the poet’s process of writing. In this specific article, I want to see how poetry can be seen as a soul of poetry from at least three perspectives, firstly from the imagery, secondly from sound and sense and thirdly from the self-culture. The method used in this research is narrative inquiry and the instruments used are interview guide and poetry writing rubrics. The result shows that the poets in this research used imagery, sound and sense and self-culture in their poetry as the voice of their own. At the same time they also feel that their voice matters, as the part of society. Keywords: imagery, sound and sense, self-culture INTRODUCTION Poetry is a work of art, a product of language that is written with figurative language. Perrine (1984) stated that poetry is a verbal work of art which means it uses the language to make it possible to represent to speak the poet’s voice. Poetry is a product of mindfulness in which it is born from the mindful efforts. Mindfulness which was introduced by Ellen J Langer in 1989 is a state of mind to be more aware of new information, new perspectives, new context, and create new categories. Zinn (1995) stated that mindfulness creates a calm and flexible state of mind. Mindfulness is to set the mind to be stable and calm. It does not push the mind, but it trains the mind. To be calmer, to be more peaceful. To be aware of something new. This is relevant to language learning through poetry since poetry enables learners of new language learn something new through metaphors, through the voice that the poets deliver, through the senses that are shared, and through the new perspectives that are offered. Mindfulness in poetry writing process works in a silent way, in the deeper understanding sometimes too personal, that to write it needs more efforts psychologically. In relation to mindfulness and language learning, the learning happens if the learners feel that there are new information, new perspectives, new context, and new categories. Poetry is one of the ways to achieve the mindfulness, or to stimulate mindfulness to happen. However, to some extent, poetry is still rarely used in language learning because it is too complicated to analyze, too hard to understand, and too personal to be revealed. In fact, the idea of using poetry in language learning is not only to enhance creativity and productivity, it also can enhance socioemotional development and wellbeing. Mindfulness in poetry writing can make learners aware of the new situations, learn new perspective, engage in different context, and create something new. Mindfulness in poetry is a way to know self- culture context better. Hanauer (2012) believed that writing poetry is one of the ways to learn the language better. In poetry the learners create meaning. Mindfulness, poetry and language learning are together in this context, to make us aware to appreciate poetry better. In relation to language learning, poetry is more than just a device to learn new perspective, but also how the new perspective is born. In this study, poetry is used to know the voice of the poets, to know how the poetry is composed, and to analyze the meaning of the poetry from the perspective of imagery, sound and sense and self-culture.