ABSTRACT
This chapter describes two poems and a letter young D. W. Winnicott sent to his mother. It presents a poem by Masud Khan, who was a student, analysand, and editor of Winnicott. Central to Winnicott's work is his vision of creativity, which he saw as fundamental to being human. He believed that life without creativity is not worth living and is equivalent to psychic death. When one thinks of Winnicott, certain attributes come to mind: originality, spontaneity, playfulness, freedom, and paradox. He felt an affinity for their appreciation of the authentic, spontaneous individual and the high value they placed on creativity and imagination. Winnicott related strongly to Keats's poetry, which captured the uncertainties and doubts of the human experience while exploring the mysteries of the imagination. The American transcendentalists also strongly influenced Winnicott's ideas, especially Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was T. S. Eliot's poetry that Winnicott asked his wife Clare to read to him at the end of his life.
