About the theme
The season’s theme will be “pathways to collective flourishing.”
How are these pathways created?
How do we know if/when we are on them or blockading them?
What is needed to travel them and what can we expect to encounter along the way?
As the Divine companions us toward transformation, She asks for our companionship in return. A love that is reciprocal in practice and belief.
The season of Lent is an invitation to pay attention to when, and where, and how that ask is made of us. In recognition that we have not been left to journey the pathway to collective flourishing alone, we enter this season seeking to faithfully accompany as we are accompanied.
In this fragile era, weary with losses and violences of so many kinds, we invite you to join us in a simple practice – daily writing of short poems.
Poetry as a spiritual practice.
Bread for the journey.
A means of prayerful reflection that solidarity may deepen and grow.
Just a few words will do.
No perfection is necessary, nor is it encouraged.
This is a practice, not a means of production.
About the practice
You can sign-up here to receive an email each day with a new word to prompt your writing.
You may either include the word in your poem or simply let it shape your thinking about pathways to collective flourishing.
We invite you to aim for poems written in three short, simple lines. No need to overthink. Feel your way through.
This practice encourages similarity to haiku in:
– a three line structure
– using concrete, vivid, sensual imagery
– paying attention to and incorporating the world around
This practice departs from the traditional Japanese form of haiku:
– writing haiku is a highly technical labor, a display of practiced expertise
– traditional Japanese haiku is written in 5-7-5 structure of “moras” (You may want to commit to your own structured process, but there’s no need to.)
– your poems may be broad in subject matter, guided more by your spiritual discernment than by a commitment to poetic form
We do encourage some reading about haiku – including its history here and some thoughts on appropriation here.
About the community
You may keep your poems in a journal. Or scribble them on napkins. Or post them on social media. Or share them with a partner on the journey.
For those who desire to share them, each day we’ll be inviting participants to share their poems on the padlet boards like the one below.
The board will be locked the next day in order to prevent spammers and trolls. But you’ll be able to go back and look at others’ contributions at anytime.
View the whole collection as they are added each day here.
We look forward to sharing in this journey with you. Divinely accompanying and being accompanied.
