Rhyming Isn’t Necessary for all Poems

Singer-songwriter Siobahn Hotaling has been involved in the music industry since the age of 16. She has since released two albums and written hundreds of songs. In addition, Siobahn Hotaling received her B.A. in Creative Writing with a specialization in Poetry from Skidmore College. In recent years, she has expanded from purely written poems to performance poetry. Over the past several years, Siobahn has appeared at several poetry open mics in New York as both a participant and as a featured poet.

While some well-known and classic poems incorporate rhyming and certain modern poems, rhyming is overdone in certain prose. When poems have too many rhymes, the verses sound more musical and come across like a children’s nursery rhyme. This is because the ear places more value on natural speech. Excessive rhymes don’t sound natural, even in poems, unless it is done for the sake of performance. Performance, sometimes called slam poetry, often relies heavily on rhymes to maintain a intriguing cadence or flow to the story.

In the written form of poetry, however, the focus of a good poem is creating something that flows with strong language. If rhyming doesn’t work in a particular poem, it might be better to leave it out and let the words create the movement, so the poem’s language resonates with listeners more strongly. Non-rhyming written poems are usually less predictable, display emotion more accurately, and maintain flow better than rhyme.

Some Facts About Skidmore College’s

Songwriter and poet Siobahn Hotaling is currently a project consultant at the Adaption Institute in Gilbert, Arizona, where she conducts research into the science of personality and growth. She attended the Harvard University through their Extension School for her masters’ degree in psychology, which she finished with a 3.9 GPA. For her BA degree in Creative Writing, Siobahn Hotaling attended Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. While at Skidmore, Siobahn first discovered her love of audio recording while taking a course in sound engineering through the school's renowned music department. Siobahn Hotaling also performed at Falstaff's, Skidmore College's on-site club and performance venue, as part of their open mic and emerging artist nights.

Skidmore College aims to prepare liberally educated graduates to continue to seek knowledge and groom them to make informed, responsible decisions. The college offers more than $64 million in financial aid annually, with 52 percent of its students getting need-based grants and 55 percent receiving some form of financial assistance. Skidmore College offers more than 44 undergraduate majors that are internationally recognized.

Skidmore College also offers international study opportunities, as 60 percent of its students study abroad at some point in their program. Students attend Skidmore-run programs in Spain, New Zealand, England, and France. Back at the main campus, Skidmore College’s buildings are eco-friendly, with 35 percent of the campus buildings geothermally cooled and heated, and 20 percent of the electricity provided on campus coming from a solar field and hydroelectric dam. The college is constructing a new center for Integrated Sciences that is expected to improve geothermal cooling and heating by 10 percent.

The Adaption Institute’s Approach

New York singer/songwriter and performance poet Siobahn Hotaling graduated from Skidmore College with a bachelor of arts in creative writing and poetry. Siobahn Hotaling also has a graduate degree in psychology and serves as a project consultant for the Adaption Institute, a management consulting firm that helps clients navigate employee, organization, market, and customer change through research-driven methodology.

The Adaption Institute provides research and data in all industries, tailored to the needs of its clients. It provides digital microlearning and hosts webinars, in-person meetings, or hybrid events to accommodate each client’s time and resources. With expertise in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, the institute can offer solutions to companies for increasing employee potential and performance.

Organizations that form partnerships with the Adaption Institute can benefit from knowledge in diversity and inclusion, which can resolve employee and client issues faster. For her master's capstone project, Siobahn Hotaling developed a new diversity training called the Implicit Bias Transformation Program, and she has partnered with the Adaption Institute to bring this training to corporate and academic settings. Research has found that organizations that are more diverse and inclusive are twice as likely lead in innovation than other companies, as well as 20% more likely to have higher revenue, according to studies by Deloitte.

Overall leadership development and employee learning also are important aspects that need to be taken into account at an organization, and with scientific research-based solutions, the Adaption Institute can help improve employee decision-making and maximize income and revenues.

Neuroscience Next Step For Human Rights

Siobahn Hotaling is a singer-songwriter and founding member of the New York Artists Collective. With her degree in psychology, Siobahn Hotaling has been putting her skills to the cause of addressing implicit bias and advancing human rights.

Human rights are, interestingly enough, a relatively new phenomenon, with the term being coined in the early 1800s - strange, because for most people the concept of universal human rights seems like an obvious part of a fair society. However, with the events of the 2020 pandemic and the following bitter political divisions and violence, the exact meaning and application of human rights has come under scrutiny.

Researchers at Brown University, Rhode Island have introduced a new lens through which to view human rights that they call "dignity neuroscience.” According to their research, many declarations of human rights over the centuries (including prototype human rights like the Cyrus Cylinder and Magna Carta) have had similar tenets at their core since all human beings share the same basic nervous system.

All humans have the same hierarchy of needs, the same response to trauma, and the same desire for autonomy. Those feelings are intrinsic to the structure of the human brain, say researchers, which requires any discussion of human rights to have an inherently universal angle to be legitimate. Similarly, the concept of bias is also intrinsic to the structure of the human brain. Siobahn Hotaling has studied both of these concepts and has created an implicit bias program - called the Implicit Bias Transformation Program - that seeks to reconcile the internal human struggle of recognizing common humanity while battling our inherent tendency to see "others" as a threat.