"Turning Toward Life with a Pen in Your Hand": Exploring Poetry of Presence II
A four-week series with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
WHAT: A four-week poetry writing series
WHEN: Nov. 28, Dec. 5, 12, and 19; 6-8PM CT (7-9PM ET, 5-7PM MT, 4-6PM PT)
WHERE: Zoom
MATERIALS NEEDED: Your favorite writing tools plus Poetry of Presence II (optional: Exploring Poetry of Presence II)
OPEN TO ALL: No prior experience with poetry-writing necessary
YOUR INVESTMENT: $100 for the series (use your Rafter discount at checkout)
CAN’T MAKE A SESSION? Replay will be available
“What does it mean to be alive?”
Consider this an invitation to join your voice to the big conversation about that question!
In this four-week series, we’ll converse with poems from Poetry of Presence II: More Mindfulness Poems, an anthology of poems that “crack open the tough stuff and spill out the light.”
Every class will consist of reading and unpacking poems, two sessions of original writing, optional sharing, and lots of talk about process. This is a chance to “practice mindfulness smack dab in the middle of our busy lives” through writing—partaking in wonder, embracing paradox, trusting life, and meeting our own lives as living poems.
About Rosemerry
Guiding you in this poetic journey will be poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, who wrote Exploring Poetry of Presence II, a companion book for the anthology that includes 88 invitations to deepen your writing practice.
Rosemerry is the host of The Poetic Path on the Ritual App on your phone, co-host of Emerging Form (a podcast on creative process), co-spy master of the Secret Agents of Change, co-leader of Soul Writers Circle, and author of All the Honey, Hush, Naked for Tea and many other poetry collections. Her poetry album on endarkenment, Dark Praise, is available for free download anywhere you listen to music and can also be seen as videos on her Youtube channel. Her daily poems (dating froom 2006) can be found at A Hundred Falling Veils.
Gentle reminder . . .
Please have the book Poetry of Presence II on hand for this series. Optional to have Rosemerry’s companion book Exploring Poetry of Presence II.
All levels of writing experience welcome—from I-don’t-even-think-I-like-poems to Pulitzer Prize winners.
Questions?
I hope you’re as excited about this series as I am! If you have questions, contact me at phyllis@phylliscoledai.com!
Thanks for my morning haiku! 🤗
Poetry of Presence
an invitation
joy of joining heart to pen
just show up and write
A note of thanks to you and Rosemary for sharing your time and your beautiful work. 🙏
A truth inspired from your class:
A Different Incarnation
It’s good to be human.
Matter matters!
I am a vessel!
I am a conduit!
I am hands and feet!
I am the home
where Spirit abides!
And where there are cracks,
the Light goes in
and also out!
It is good to be human.
Matter matters!
And yet, with Zoom,
there seems only the illusion of matter.
Round faces in square spaces.
Sometimes it leaves me wanting.
What is missing?
Human humus?
Energy?
That aura of warmth
that actually feels like
an exchange
of love and kindness?
Zoom, it’s what we have and
where we are going, but
I still grieve matter.
Warm flesh, cold flesh
the hug of a soft sweater
The scent of perfume
or a recent peanut butter snack
Sly glances that catch
a movement,
a yawn, a smile
That gurgle…
was it your hungry stomach or mine?
a chuckle, a whisper
And yet, with Zoom,
when done well,
an intangible connection
can occur.
Is that an oxymoron?
A word or a thought
unimpeded by distance or space,
leaps into my heart.
A prompt, a pen, a poem,
a truth upon a page.
Traveling electrons or moving Spirit?
Zoom or Flesh?
Both/And for now, I guess.