Participants are invited to bring a love of poetry, a willingness to read poetry aloud and to pay attention to their own uniquely subjective resonances to a poet’s imagery and language. The emphasis is not on analysing poetry. The Sessions are immersive, invitations to attune more deeply to our shared sentience, kinship and intimate bonding as Earth community so that we may go on co-creating a vibrant world, and to keep on orienting our lives within our embeddedness within Earth, and within the sacred universe.

Each week participants will choose one poem to bring to the Session from a choice of four poems designated. There will be invitations to read your selected poem aloud in the whole group or in small groups and to engage in responsive reading with others. 

Participants will have opportunities to engage together in a deep listening process in response to one additional poem. Deep listening is a contemplative process inviting participants to bring their own subjective interior experience into dialogue with a poem through resonances, memories, stories and associations that arise. It involves a guided process which may include multiple readings of the one poem. This part of the Session also includes a brief time of around 5-6 minutes for free writing as part of the deep listening process to one poem.  Free writing is a process which is spacious, non-judgmental; it is a practice that helps to liberate the writer’s voice and connects them to the stream of creativity that lies underneath the surface of ordinary thinking. Sharing one’s free writing with others is always an invitational process.

Guides for responding to poetry and for free writing will be provided. Participants may or may not write poetry. If you are a poetry writer there is freedom for you to be writing poetry, but this is not a requirement.

This program will Interweave poetry, eco-spirituality and creativity through deep listening and free writing practices in response to the selected poetry of three women poets: Pattiann Rogers, Mary Oliver and Linda Hogan. Brief meditations drawing on the writings of Thomas Berry will open each Session. Sessions are contemplative, immersive and interactive.

Who is The Sacred Universe: The Poetic Universe for?

The Sessions are for participants:

who are inspired by the writings of Thomas Berry, author, geologian, cultural historian and lover of Earth,

and

who are drawn to deepening their appreciation of differentiation, subjectivity and communion (three central governing tendencies of evolution identified by Thomas Berry) as these are expressed through poetic subject matter, form, imagery and personal interior response on the part of both poet and reader.

The Sessions invite participants to:

engage creatively and imaginatively with poetry through deep listening and free writing practices; 

read and respond to poetry as a form of attunement to both the beauty and fragility of our planet today and to the compassion, wonder and active hope to which we are called as Earth community.

No previous experience necessary

To join the Sessions, you do not need any previous experience in;

reading Thomas Berry;

reading and responding to poetry;

free writing in response to poetry;

or

writing poetry. 

Accessing the poetry

A list of the weekly poems and associated website links will be provided to participants. 

What to bring

Participants will need their own access to copies of the poems designated for each Session. This can be in hard copy, or from an additional digital device.

Also, bring a journal or notebook and a pen. 

Participants will receive:

A Session outline;

A list of the weekly poems and associated website links to access the poems;

The Thomas Berry quotes/meditations which will open each Session;

Guidelines for responding to poetry, useful in small group interactions;

Guidelines for free writing;

An outline of the contemplative/deep listening process [after the tea break].

Judith Keller Bio

Judith Keller, M.Ed., lives on the unceded lands of the Kombumerri people of the wider Bundjalung language nation, at Southport, South of Brisbane, in the bioregion of S.E. Queensland on the East coast of Australia, 

Judith’s background is in education, spirituality and the arts. She holds an M.Ed (Rel.Ed) from Boston College having spent two years in Boston in 1986/87. She subsequently held academic positions in schools and universities in Australia. In her retirement Judith trained as a guide in her Regional Botanic Gardens leading guided walks related to endangered species and educating and advocating for the trees of her bioregion. 

Today Judith describes herself as a cosmic contemplative, a writer and artist. She is a curator of immersive and contemplative online spaces weaving silence, poetry, music, and texts drawing on writers such as Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme and Joanna Macy. In 2021 Judith completed a Certificate in Deeptime leadership with the online global community, the Deeptime Network. She also completed training in 2022 as a Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator and regularly facilitates hand-held online labyrinth meditation walks. Over 2023-2024, Judith has been teaching poetry online in her local adult education network. Her focus has been contemporary Australian women’s poetry, including the poetry of First Nations Women in her country.

Judith is a member of SOE - Sisters of Earth, TreeSisters, ANSD – Australian Network for Spiritual Directors, ARRCC – Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, and ALN – the Australian Labyrinth Network.

Program: The Sacred Universe: The Poetic Universe

Facilitator: Judith Keller, M.Ed.

Dates: 4 Wednesdays  - October 9 - 30, 2024

Time: 4:00 - 6:00 pm Pacific

Cost: $80.00

(Please do not let cost deter you from attending. Ask us about our funding for programs.)

Location:  On-line via Zoom Video Conference

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