Fall #2 2026 THEME: Paradox & the Alchemy of Attention
Included with your order is a handout from the Winter 25 series Beginner's MInd. For our first session of that series, we considered the state of INNOCENCE, taking inspiration from such poets as William Butler Yeats, WS Merwin, and the contemporary poet-guide Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. These pages include 8 poems along with a short worksheet of prompt-lines to kick-start your poem.
For each of the sessions in Fall #2 2026, you will receive a similar pdf of the weekly handout (poems & prompts) along with the Zoom Link for the course, via email. Our approaches vary from week to week. Classes are always fresh!
Dates/ Times: 7 Thursdays
Oct. 27/29 - Dec. 15/17 (Skip Nov. 24/26)
2 to 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time; 5 to 7:30 Eastern
In the 15 years I’ve taught poetry to adults, I’ve never repeated—and don’t plan to repeat—a themed series or a single class. This means that my job is to stay close to my own bones (eyes, ears, heart, & soul) and feel my way into what is true & meaningful as we move along together. Add to this the brilliant and supportive community that continues to be drawn to our process, allowing all of us to teach one another. Because of these two elements, I feel our Pilgrimage is truly a unique offering.
Basic Course Description: As we rush through our days, the urge to center ourselves in something deep and sustaining intensifies. Writing poetry not only serves this urge but shares many similarities to traditional spiritual paths: focus on presence, deep listening, sincere truth-telling, and the surrender to something beyond ourselves.
Fall One Theme: Journey through a Peopled World
Inspired by carefully curated contemporary poems, we will explore the gifts bestowed to us in our daily lives, paying special attention to the easily overlooked. As we weave these gleanings into poems, we will open ourselves to paradox, welcoming a sense of Keats' Negative Capability: in his words: the ability to exist in "uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason."
As always, we will welcome the unexpected into our work, and we’ll read and write to our hearts’ content. All experience-levels and styles welcome!
