Start here to ride the river of a creative life, buoyed by poetry, music, water-drops of wisdom, and more . . .
Live and create from your true spot!
Hi! I’m Phyllis Cole-Dai, author, poet, musical dabbler, and host of this online community. I’m so glad you’ve stepped aboard The Raft! Ready to head downstream?
On The Raft, we’re all about trying to live from our “true spot,” buoyed by the arts and spiritual practice. Many of us are also into making stuff, whether casually or professionally.
What’s our “true spot”? Imagine it as an inner place of deep integrity, confidence, compassion, and joy.
Get just what you want from The Raft community
Don’t miss out! We have oodles of resources and opportunities, and The Raft is always evolving. Sample everything, then stick with what you really feeds you.
Read on, clicking on links of interest, to learn about . . .
Newsletters
When you join The Raft you’re automatically subscribed to every Substack newsletter (or “section”) that I publish except Rafter Digest:
Staying Power (occasional Sundays). My original inspirational musings.
Daily Boost (weekdays). Bites of “soul food” for your inner life, curated from the arts.
Events & News (biweekly on Saturday). The latest Rafter announcements, plus my author news.
Rafter Digest (Saturdays). A weekly roundup of major newsletter posts and event replays.
After you’ve sampled everything, you can adjust your settings to receive just the mailings you’re interested in.
Feeling “inbox overwhelm”? I recommend subscribing only to the Rafter Digest.
Rafter Groups
Poetry Pick-Me-Up (non-holiday Thursdays, 12-1PM Central). A casual poetry-sharing and discussion group. Bring a poem written by someone other than yourself to read to the group. Or, just come to listen to the poems offered by other Rafters and to participate in informal but wholehearted conversation about them. Hop on the Zoom at this link.
Watch for video replays of this group in either Events & News or Rafter Digest. Or watch them in the “Catch Up” section of the archives.
Video replays aren’t available for these next two groups. Contact their hosts if you’re interested in participating.
Poets on The Raft (Zoom). Schedule and Host: varies. Learn more here. Video replays aren’t available.
Rafters Writing Fiction (Zoom, every other Tuesday, 1PM Central). Host: Ferwa Jaffery. Learn more here.
Deep Dives
With month-long “deep dives,” I invite you to immerse yourself in particular “life themes,” using poetry reading, contemplation, journaling, creative work, and/or other practices. You can join or opt out of Deep Dives by updating your subscription preferences.
Bonus Content
Occasionally I add the text or audio of one of my backlisted book titles. You’re welcome to read or listen at your leisure. Start in the Bonus Content Catalogue.
Rafter Discount
Woohoo! As either a free member or patron of The Raft community, you get an evergreen 15% discount in my website store. Just enter the code “rafter15” at checkout.
Whew, that’s a lot! Still with me?
One last thing . . .
I offer The Raft as a gift. However, if you can help support this community with a voluntary contribution, I’d be grateful. Consider your donation a tangible expression of the value you find here.
As a patron, you’ll get a few modest perks in return:
a personal email expressing my gratitude
a virtual patrons’ “bash” with me, once a year
most of all, the delight of knowing that you’re helping to keep The Raft fully accessible to absolutely everybody. (Yes, just like public broadcasting!)
Inclined to be a patron? You have a variety of options:
Try a donation of $5/month. Or $50/year.
Become a Raftkeeper at $150/year, and I’ll honor your extraordinary gift with a one-hour “creative companioning” session.
Prefer to make a one-time gift? Go here.
Prefer to contribute by check, Venmo, or another option? Drop me a note.
Grateful, grateful.
Again, I’m so glad you’re here. Always feel free to drop me a line.
Even your page is creatively done! I'm still pretty new here but I found some crossover in our topics and mentioned you in this recent piece:
https://open.substack.com/pub/trevythomas/p/searching-for-a-non-religious-religion?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=9bu8g