Poetry Weekend
November 11-12, 2023
The Great Books Poetry Weekend is held annually in November. Each year, the weekend includes three discussions along with a poetry activity that entertains and involves all the participants.
Details
Poetry Weekend 2023
November 11–12 via Zoom
Theme: Poetry in an Endangered World
To go to the registration page for the event, please click this link:
While nature has been an inspiration for many of us, the natural world faces grave challenges. Poetry Weekend 2023 will focus on how poetry can create greater awareness of these challenges, not through preaching, but from the soul.
Along with our small group discussions on Saturday, we are delighted to have Elizabeth Herron, Poet Laureate of Sonoma County, California, as our guest presenter. A celebrated ecopoet, activist, and "poet of witness," Elizabeth will lead an interactive seminar on Sunday morning and give a reading of her evocative poems in the afternoon.
On Saturday, there will be small-group discussions of poems chosen by the Poetry Selection Committee, led by experienced facilitators. Poems include:
Morning session ("Openings"):
The Light Changed by Yves Bonnefoy
Aubade by Louise Glück
Acorn by Phillis Levin
Daedal by A.E. Stallings
The Course of a Particular by Wallace Stevens
Afternoon session ("Closings"):
The Lamplighter by Eavan Boland
Another Story by Ellen Bass
Jacaranda by Aracelis Girmay
How Music Stays in the Body by Lee Herrick
Singularity by Marie Howe
An Open Mic will follow the afternoon session. Participants are welcome to read a poem of their own or share a favorite short poem. Elizabeth Herron will be the MC.
On Sunday morning (PST), Elizabeth Herron will lead an interactive seminar exploring the creative ways in which various poets have addressed the issues facing our vulnerable world. In the afternoon, she will share her unique writing process and a read a selection of her poems. There will be ample time for questions.
The event's registration fee is $50. To go to the registration page, please click this link: Register.
About Elizabeth Herron:
Author of four previous books of poetry: Insistent Grace (from Fernwood Press) and most recently In the Cities of Sleep (also from Fernwood); The Poet’s House; Desire Being Full of Distances; and five chapbooks, Elizabeth C. Herron also writes articles about the importance of natural systems in the well-being of all life. Her work has appeared in Reflections, North American Review, West Marin Review, Free State Review, Comstock Review and Parabola, and is included in Face to Face: Women Writing on Faith, Mysticism and Awakening; Fire and Rain, Ecopoetry of California; and What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be. The Mesa Refuge for Writers, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Foundation for Deep Ecology have supported her work. She is a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Writers and lives with her husband in Northern California where she is the Poet Laureate of Sonoma County (2022 to 2024).
Please join us on November 11-12 2023 for the next Poetry Weekend!
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For a list of books about poetry, please click here.
For lists of the poems that we've discussed during previous Poetry Weekends, click here:
Questions? Please send email to:
Paula Weinberger, p.weinberger41@gmail.com or
Ginni Saunders, ginnisaunders@gmail.com
