8 Things Poets and Monastics Can Teach Us About Happiness; with 8 Poems to Make Life More Meaningful–Part 1 of a series
What poets and monastics have in common When people think about what poets and monastics (monks and nuns who live in monasteries) have in common, the list might look like this: They have their heads in the clouds; They’re hermits;. They dress weird; And they’re dying off. Like all potent rumors, there’s a smidgeon of truth in each of those statements. Poets and monastics do tend to contemplate the nonmaterial world — love, death, memory, dreams, intuition, emotions, and the spiritual life. The work of poets (studying literature and writing poems) and of monastics (praying and reading scripture) frequently causes …
Unpacking the Boxes: a small tribute to Donald Hall, (1928-2018)
Yesterday, when I read in the Concord Monitor that one of the last major American poets of his generation, Donald Hall, died at his home at the age of 89, I felt sad that I had neglected to write to him one more time. I never told him how much his example of the good life, the writing life, had shaped my own life. He would have liked to have heard that, I think. I didn’t know Donald Hall, but I knew his writing well, and I knew the story of his life through his books. In 1987, I addressed …
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The destruction of apathy: how Emma Gonzalez mobilized the tools of poetry to empower the #NeverAgain movement
On March 26, 2018, at the ‘March for Our Lives’ demonstration in Washington D.C., one of the march’s organizers, Emma Gonzalez, took the stage to speak against the insane notion that nothing can be done to protect us and our children from gun violence. People were shaken out of apathy and the #NeverAgain movement, organized by Stoneman Douglas teens, gained momentum. Miami New Times calls the #NeverAgain movement “unprecedented gun-control activism.” Of course, there’s a whole lot more to the #NeverAgain movement than Emma Gonzalez’s speech. A month before the March For Our Lives, George and Amal Clooney, Oprah, and …
This is not spring and this is not a poem
April 10, 2018. Snow everywhere and it’s miserably frigid. The calendar says spring arrived twenty one days ago but this is not spring. So here’s a poem for questioning how things ought to be in light of how things are and vice versa. Christine Klocek-Lim’s nuanced poem, “This is Not a Poem,” is an ars poetica — a meditation on poetry using the form and techniques of a poem. “This is not a poem,” the title insists with Socratic irony. The poet’s feigned ignorance adds satire to the poem. Dickens and other writers used this technique to point out injustices, to make …
12 Places to Put Poetry for National Poetry Month
For impatient people: Because poetry has made me less self-absorbed and more empathetic, you can skip my explanation of why poetry is important enough to deserve a national month celebrating it, and jump straight to the 12 places to put poetry list. Just click here . So here’s the story about why poetry is so important that we have a national poetry month to honor it: My grandparents hated pizza. They were a quiet pair of baby-cuddlers, who stitched crewel work pillows (yes, both of them), and ran errands, all of their lives, for elderly parents, aunts, uncles, and overworked parents, always …
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12 Places to Put Poetry for National Poetry Month
For impatient people: Because poetry has made me less self-absorbed and more empathetic, you can skip my explanation of why poetry is important enough to deserve a national month celebrating it, and jump straight to the 12 places to put poetry list. Just click here . So here’s the story about why poetry is so important that we have a national poetry month to honor it: My grandparents hated pizza. They were a quiet pair of baby-cuddlers, who stitched crewel work pillows (yes, both of them), and ran errands, all of their lives, for elderly parents, aunts, uncles, and overworked parents, always …
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Withdrawing from Social Media for Lent
Goodbye for now, friends. I’m soon going on another lenten journey and plan to return in early April. It’s common for people of diverse Christian traditions to “give up” something for lent. You could say I’m giving up social media, but this is more than a time of abstinence. For a Benedictine, lent is also a time of increase, of doing more, of embracing the spiritual life with more fervor and vigor. It can be an exciting, enriching time and I’m looking forward to this journey with the joy of anticipation. Why I’ve decided to withdraw from social media for …
Muriel Rukeyser on poetry as a weapon against hate
In her 1949 book, The Life of Poetry, Muriel Rukeyser indicates what motivated her to make poems: “Writing is only another way of giving, a courtesy, if you will, and a form of love.” Rukeyser was perhaps as well known for her political activism as for her poetry. Living through the death and destruction of two World Wars, living with those wars’ after effects–chaos, confusion, disillusionment, and fear– Muriel Rukeyser made a clear choice. She chose for love, against hate. The Poetry Foundation includes these details in its biography of Muriel Rukeyser: In the 1930s Rukeyser attended Vassar College …
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5 safe, mid-winter retreats for spiritual seekers, Benedictine Oblates, and anyone who wants to nurture a sacred way of life during the pandemic
This article will:
* Explain why making a retreat can be a positive, life-transforming experience;
* Provide details about 5 upcoming pandemic-safe retreats for seekers, oblates, and anyone seeking to nurture a sacred way of life (4 visual retreats + 1 stay-at-home, ebook-guided retreat);
* Offer help for deciding which retreat is best for you through a link to “Listen with the ear of your heart to make up your mind: a Benedictine process for spiritual discernment.”
Gailand MacQueen on the spirituality of mazes and labyrinths
The Spirituality Center at Saint Benedict’s monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota, has a labyrinth, which I am preparing to walk soon for personal and professional reasons. I suppose I could just drive over there tomorrow and walk it, but that’s not how I take journeys. I read up on the places I’m going because it prepares me to experience them more openly, which is to say, more deeply. One of the books I’m reading now is Gailand MacQueen’s The Spirituality of Mazes and Labyrinths (2005). Are you a labyrinth or maze kind of person? Labyrinth People: are traditionalists; seek simplicity; …
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