Telling the Truth:
Poetry as Passion, Prayer and Practice
5 Day Retreat with Kim Rosen
September 26 - October 1, 2008
and Poetry Concert by Kim Rosen and Jami Sieber, Cellist
September 26, 2008
Sleeping Dog Farm, Victoria, B.C.
Poetry is the language of the soul. It comes from beyond the mind, affecting your body, your feelings and the very biochemistry of your awareness. True poetry can be a force of awakening. It speaks heart to heart and reinvents the mind on the way. When you enter the world of a poem, when you take it into your body and heart, it becomes an inner teacher that can lead you beyond the boundaries of the familiar into the undiscovered “Self within self”, as the poet Lalla says. When you speak a poem aloud, you receive its medicine and can offer it to others, thus becoming a voice for truth and healing.
This retreat will focus on both writing new poems and taking the poems we love to heart so they become teachers that live within. Through an alchemy of music and spoken poems, an environment of authenticity and sacredness is fostered in which the true voice of each can emerge through spontaneous writing, movement, silence and the art of speaking poetry aloud. Prior knowledge of poetry or writing is not necessary (nor is the capacity to memorize anything!)
“Not only did the workshop heal something deep inside of me but my own poetic voice is changing as I discover the ability (me whose brain is like a sieve!) to learn poems - my own and others’ - by heart. I’m paying more attention to the rhythm and cadence of my language, and what comes out is blessedly different and surprising. Thank you for showing me how holy poetry really is!” —Patti, a poet from Santa Cruz
INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION: Workshop Fee: $1250. Includes shared accommodations and food. (And by the way, Victoria is easier and less expensive to get to than many U.S. cities. Contact Kim for details.)
Please contact Kim Rosen at kim@kimrosen.net for registration and information. Your deposit of $500 will be refundable until September 1. After that it, it will be refunded only if we or you find someone to take your place. In that case it will be refunded minus a $35 fee.

Additional Information Below

Each day will include a “Poetry Meditation”, movement, spontaneous writing, silence and sharing. In addition the following themes will be covered:
·         The Shamanic Anatomy of a Poem: Every poem has a “medicine bag” of tools for melting the veils between worlds. Drumbeat, breath, song, movement and meaning combine within the poem to affect our biochemistry and open our minds.
·         Taking a Poem to Heart: Learning by heart is completely different from memorizing. Ironically, it does not require a good memory. When you allow a poem to guide you into your own direct and completely personal experience, learning it by heart happens effortlessly.
·         Freeing the Voice of the Soul: To authentically speak a poem (or any other communication of truth) we need to undo the strictures of patterns, preferences and fears that confine our voices, so we can inhabit the self we see in the mirror of the poem and offer it to the world.
·         Poetry as Sacrament: A spoken poem has the power to draw us into a holy space where we are harmonized and healed.

Mistrust no one who offers you
water from a well, a songbird’s feather,
something that’s been mended twice.
Always travel lighter
than the heart.
Lorna Crozier, from “Packing for the Future - Instructions”