Communing with Mary Oliver to open our hearts and spur our own writing.

Experiment with a prayerful and playful practice for Lent. Writing can be a fruitful way of exploring our interior worlds, bringing to voice what, up to now, may have had no words.

The morning will look something like this: Together we will see what happens — we will be astonished!— when we write freely and then are confronted with lines and fragments from Mary Oliver poems, following them wherever they lead. Using this method we will quickly generate some prose with which to work. Then, using one or two simple poetry forms, we will gather up words and phrases that seem to have energy or meaning and make a poem or two. If there is time we will also make a few collaborative poems.

Whether you identify as a poet or you haven’t written a poem since the third grade haiku unit, this is a perfect space for anyone willing to put pen to paper.

We will provide everything you need, but if you use a journal or have a favorite writing tool, bring them along.