Poetically Seeking Wisdom
A weekly gathering for convivial conversation - convened by Denis Stewart over the course of several years now - is a space I think of as home.
(I know this because I missed it yesterday and today I woke feeling a tad untethered).
The ninety-minute gathering is punctuated by a preamble, an impromptu conversation as we settle in; a pause, that we may settle into ourselves; a prompt to start the conversation; and then a perambulation through the maze of eclectic thoughts, insights, and reactions of the humbly curious participants from across three continents and many cultures.
But it’s the closing that seems to fix the shared wisdom and experience in my mind - and ground me.
An exclamation point!
We end with an invitation for anyone to contribute a poem.
The transformative power of that closing became clear yesterday when while recommending Shane Breslin's podcast, Poems at the Speed of Life to a friend, she said, “I always think of poetry as prayer.”
A-ha!
Perhaps what I hear is a benediction. A grateful acknowledgment of the energy we consciously created.
This brings me to Seeking Wisdom, A Spiritual Path for Creative Connection - arguably Julia Cameron’s gift of an 11th Step to all for a “creative recovery”.
For anyone not familiar with the Twelve Steps of many recovery communities it reads in part:
“Sought through prayer and mediation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understand him…”
Decades ago, as Cameron embarked on her own recovery she was advised that to stay sober she’d have to learn to pray. She pushed back.
Until someone suggested - “Surely there is something you could pray to.”
There was.
Contained in the title and powerful first line of the Dylan Thomas poem, The force that through the green fuse drives the flower she could sense the Divine.
There is a power in poetry to seduce us while settling us into a relationship with the creative forces that lie within.
If you click the link to Shane’s podcast - you’ll arrive at Matthew McConaughey’s poem “Why Pray?” -
But with this invitation to join our six-week exploration of Seeking Wisdom - let me share the American Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s “Eagle Poem”.
Eagle Poem
To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.
P. S. For more on Denis Stewart’s gatherings, you can message him via LinkedIn or visit Transformative Innovation | International Futures Forum
