“Attentiveness is the natural prayer of the human soul,” wrote Paul Celan. Mary Oliver asks, “ what is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?”

Reading and writing poetry can be a way to experience spiritual awareness in our lives. As we allow ourselves to encounter and apprehend poetic language deeply, we tune our minds to a deeper awareness of our selves, the world, and our place in it.

In this workshop we will look at selected writings by a few contemporary poets whose work exemplifies poetry as prayer and meditation, including Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, and Jane Hirshfield. Additionally, we will discuss reading, writing and using poetry in our daily reflections, and we will practice together some approaches to both widen our understanding and further our practice of spiritual writing.

Participants will receive packets of poems and lists of suggested meditative writing prompts, activities, and names of journals that publish spiritual writing.