A Poem You Can Use As A Coaching Tool

Some of the most powerful moments in coaching can come from a metaphor that the client shares with the coach. Sometimes, it is the coach who will elicit the metaphor from the client, by asking the client what they are seeing or by sharing what they perceive themselves. Metaphors can also be elicited via pictures, images… and poems.

We want to focus this article on a specific poem that we think has earned its place in a coaching toolkit – and you will see why:

Portia Nelson’s “Autobiography in Five Short Chapters”

Written in 1977 and later published in her book There’s a Hole in My Sidewalk, this short poem traces a journey of personal change through five brief vignettes (Cross, n.d.). Nelson captures something profound about how we grow, change, and eventually free ourselves from patterns that no longer serve us. And because the work of coaches is supporting clients go through this growth and change, this poem can be incredibly valuable to inspire deep reflection.

The poem

I.
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost … I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes me forever to find a way out.

II.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place
but, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

III.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in … it’s a habit.
my eyes are open
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

IV.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

V.
I walk down another street.

The Five Chapters as Stages of Awareness

Each chapter represents a distinct stage in the journey from unconscious repetition to conscious choice.

Chapter I: Unconscious Incompetence

There is no awareness. The fall feels sudden and the response is helplessness. Blame is external: this happened to me, not because of me. Many clients arrive in coaching in this place, feeling stuck in circumstances they believe are beyond their control.

Chapter II: Denial

The first glimmer of awareness appears, but it’s immediately suppressed. There’s knowledge that gets pushed aside. The fall happens again, and the response is disbelief mixed with externalisation.

Chapter III: Conscious Recognition

Awareness is fully present. Eyes are open. The pattern is seen clearly, and yet the fall still happens. This is perhaps the most uncomfortable stage: knowing what you’re doing even as you do it. But then ownership arrives: the recognition that “it is my fault” is an act of agency.

Chapter IV: Conscious Choice

The hole is still there, but this time, there’s a different choice: walking around it. This is where coaching often focuses: helping clients translate awareness into new behaviours.

Chapter V: Transformation

This isn’t about avoiding the hole more skilfully but about choosing an entirely different path. It is the recognition that we’re not bound to the streets we’ve always walked.

How to Use the Poem in a Coaching Session

There are several ways to introduce this poem in your practice:

Share the link to the poem with a client (if in a remote session) or on paper (for in-person sessions) and invite the client to take a moment to read the poem and share with you what it evokes,
Share it in advance and invite the client to reflect before your conversation,
Print it as a handout for the client to take away and revisit between sessions,
Return to it later in the coaching relationship when patterns resurface.

Make sure to contract with your clients first: explain why a poem, why this specific poem, and why you think it would be valuable for them. Introduce it as an experiment, as a creative activity, and let the client decide if they want to do it or not.

Once you have shared the poem, a simple opening question is enough to begin the exploration.

Coaching Questions You Can Ask

Exploring current awareness:

Which chapter feels most familiar to you right now?
What do you notice as you hear/read this poem?
Where do you see yourself in these five chapters?

Naming the pattern:

What is the hole you keep falling into?
What is the street you keep walking down?
When did you first become aware of the hole/the street?

Understanding what maintains the pattern:

What keeps you walking down the same street?
What makes it hard to see the hole, even when part of you knows it’s there?
What do you gain from falling down the hole/walking down this street?
What does it cost you to fall down the hole/walk down this street?

Moving toward change:

What does “walking around the hole” look like for you?
What helped the person in the poem move from denial to recognition? What might help you?
What is one small thing you could do differently this week?

Exploring transformation:

What is the other street you’ve been avoiding?
What would need to change for you to choose a different path?
If you imagine yourself in Chapter V, what does life look like?

Tips for Using Poetry in Coaching

Not every client will respond to poetry, and that’s fine. But for those who do, a poem like this one offers something a model or diagnostic tool cannot: an emotional recognition that opens the door to deeper work.

To get the most from this tool:

Let the poem speak for itself: resist the urge to explain or interpret it immediately, trust your client’s intelligence and perception.
Give the client space to sit with it before diving into questions, stay silent.
Use the poem’s language as a touchpoint throughout the session and the engagement (ie, “How’s the hole in the sidewalk this week?”), use the language as metaphors.
Trust the client to find their own meaning in the metaphor.

Why This Poem Works in Coaching

Coaching often involves helping clients recognise patterns: the behaviours, thoughts, emotions, and choices they keep experiencing, sometimes without realising it. The challenge for the coach to point out those patterns without making the client feel judged or defensive.

Nelson’s poem is an opportunity for the coach to offer a unique, creative mirror to the client. When a client reads it, they can recognise themselves and can start exploring the different metaphors the poem names.

We hope you experiment with it in your sessions because it can bring a lot of new awareness to clients who are open for it.