Interfaith Book Group discussion

Do you write poems or memoir? Create art? Do photography? Sing or play an instrument? How have you creatively expressed your spirituality or responded to any of the books we've read? Would you share it (or post a link) here?

I used to write a lot of poetry. but late words have felt inadequate and I am gravitating more to visual art.
I practice (and in the past had led workshops in ) an expressive collage art called SoulCollage(r) in which small cards are created to express a feeling or aspect of oneself.

I am going to try to post a recent card here if I can figure out how to share a graphic.

does not let me post an image. but I find collage a good way to bypass the verbal aspects of my brain (i am very verbal in fact I tend to think out loud). and is more accessible to people who do not perceive themselves as artists.

I like the idea of art making as a way I can try to respond to a book we are reading

Laurie, you can post an image in the photos area. You can also post one here if it's on the Internet and you link to it.

Laurie wrote: "does not let me post an image. but I find collage a good way to bypass the verbal aspects of my brain (i am very verbal in fact I tend to think out loud). and is more accessible to people who do no..."

POETRY copyright 2025 by Tracy Marks
One or more new poems posted daily on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/tracymar.bsk...

MEDITATION HAIKU
An expanse of blue
cloudless sky, empty of thoughts.
Clarity of mind.



FOUR STANZA HAIKU
Here’s how to flourish:
determine your own purpose,
abolish dire thoughts,

learn how to nourish
whatever keeps you joyous,
cherish those you love.

relish what you have.
keep open to the wondrous,
don’t let love perish.



MEDITATION TANKA
(tankas are five lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables)
Behind the curtain,
At the edges of the mind -
Flickering insights,
Inner eye softly watching
As they float to center stage.

❤️

I just attended the lecture on "Poetry and Spirituality" by Iranian author/poet Kaveh Akbar, who introduced his listeners the oldest known poet and poem from over 43 centuries ago - ancient Sumer!

The Akkadian princess, Enheduenna wrote a number of poems, mostly to the goddess Inanna/Ishtar - a radiant source of life, but also a destroyer when humans transgress her will. And we have some of them, available in several different translations.

“The voice we hear in the hymns is that of a gifted poet. She describes with candour the everyday lives, cares, and inherent nature of the deities and their temples. She populates the entire surrounding cosmos with active, engaging, uncontrollable divine beings” -Jungian analyst and Enheduanna translator Betty De Shong Meador in her 2009 book Princess, Priestess, Poet.

Some useful links:
https://www.harvardreview.org/book-re...

https://www.reddit.com/r/bookclub/com...

video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLLXf...

And here are a few stanzas from her Hymn to Inanna:

from The Hymn to Inanna
By Enheduanna

Lady of all powers,
In whom light appears,
Radiant one
Beloved of Heaven and Earth,
Tiara-crowned
Priestess of the Highest God,
My Lady, you are the guardian
Of all greatness.
Your hand holds the seven powers:
You lift the powers of being,
You have hung them over your finger,
You have gathered the many powers,
You have clasped them now
Like necklaces onto your breasts.
___________

Like a dragon,
You poisoned the land-
When you roared at the earth
In your thunder,
Nothing green could live,
A flood fell from the mountain:
You, Inanna,
Foremost in Heaven and Earth.
Lady riding a beast,
You rained fire on the heads of men.
Taking your power from the Highest,
Lady of all the great rites,
Who can understand all this is yours?

________

O my Lady,
Beloved of Heaven,
I have told your fury truly.
Now that her priestess
Has returned to her place,
Inanna's heart is restored.
The day is auspicious,
The priestess is clothed
In beautiful robes,
In womanly beauty,
As if in the light of the rising moon.
The gods have appeared
In their rightful places,
The doorsill of Heaven cries "Hail!"
Praise to the destroyer endowed with power,
To my Lady enfolded in beauty.
Praise to Inanna.
______________________

Translations by Jane Hirshfield from Women in Praise of the Sacred edited by Jane Hirshfield. Copyright (c) 1994 by Jane Hirshfield. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Source: Women in Praise of the Sacred (HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1994)

Tankas are Japanese forms of five lines, 5-7-5-7-7 syllables.

TANKA by Tracy Marks
I’m ripped raw inside
by the nonstop battering
of our nation’s news,
of our world’s warmongering.
God above, we need you now.


TANKA by Tracy Marks
My heart feels ravaged,
hurting. I’m bleeding from wounds
to our nation, world,
wondering how to remain
open, bear pain and still act.


TANKA by Tracy Marks
Can we become waves
in the ocean of our world,
flood our land with love,
envision a just future,
act with hope, not sit with fear?


AN INTENTION by Tracy Marks
Whenever I see
an opportunity
to be kind
I will be kind,
whenever I see
an opportunity
for generosity,
I will be
generous,
to whatever extent
I have the means
and energy
to live by
my values.


POWER TANKA by Tracy Marks
there’s power *over*,
power *against*, power *for*
and that mutual
empowerment of you and I
empowering each other.

also posted above in our No Mud No Lotus thread


YOU HAVE TO LEARN HOW
by Tracy Marks
inspired and somewhat paraphrased
from Thich Nhat Hanh’s
No Mud No Lotus

You have to learn how
to feed your happiness.
You have to daily
water the seeds
of your happiness
if you want to
keep experiencing
the exaltation
of awakening spring
and many rich
and abundant harvests.

I just loaded an image of a journal cover I created, into photos.

I loaded then deleted then reloaded. had not previously resized to make small enough file size and had not cropped. so cropped correctly and resized much smaller.

I decorate journal covers from drugstore black and white composition books.
I like the fact they are strongly bound. and a lot of pages. and at least a little less pricey than most blank journals.
I don't like the fact they are lined. but in a way the lined pages make them less "precious" . although the paper is not suited for paint and markers may bleed through it is fine for writing or coloring or drawing or collaging .

I am also in the process of creating a process, that i realize I already follow, for others in my local area.

I am thinking of offering a local class in this process. for me, NOT setting an intention for the journal but discovering it as part of decorating the cover turns this into an intuitive art process similar to SoulCollage.
but unlike my offering SoulCollage, a process i was trained in but created by another, this is my own process.

I think that in our times people need to create. especially those of us involved in creating a kinder world. and especially if we are introverts or sensitive people. the world of taking action is not built for introspective people yet looking within is what is needed. you cannot create unless you first can imagine.

and instead to saying: we will make gratitude journals. or affirmation journals or other.. it will be: let's create journals and intuitively have fun making them and let the process tell us what the journal will be for.

I'm glad to hear that you're writing in a journal, Laurie, and I love the idea of your decorating your own covers. I think you can do something with that idea......post an article with pictures online about it, maybe even run a workshop for doing just that!

I keep a lot of journals (for different topics in my classes as well as such topics as spirituality and notes on books) but it's absolutely essential that each have exactly the "right" cover. Though I'm homebound most of the time, at least twice a year I go to Barnes and Noble and look for their discount section where they have dozens of journals for $8.

When I was there 6 weeks ago, I saw a journal with a fiery dragon on the cover. Normally I choose journals with more peaceful images but I bought that because I thought it was perfect for writing about the nearly-intolerable difficulties I'm facing in my life now regarding health, home and finances.

I both need to pour out my feelings and also get clear enough to create affirmations, intentions and a plan of action. This means facing the dragon and eventually harnessing its energy. But first the dragon needs to roar.

And regarding you, when you decorate and personalize your journal covers, you are really making them an expression of yourself. What a wonderful idea!

(I'm teaching my course, Journal Writing for Personal Growth, right now....probably my favorite course to teach, and will send you my first handout, which actually has 1-2 pages in it about journal covers!!!)

Tracy: regarding your post on journaling. I keep around 7 or 8 journals, each with a different focus and I write a line or two in each every day. usually I keep each one going for a year then at start of the year I start a new group of them, which may be totally different. I find i need a combo of change/variety within a self chosen structure. so the variety of each year plus the daily structure works. the self chosen is important. though some journals are guided ones.

I had a recent talk with my spiritual mentor and she encouraged me to look into starting to offer my journal cover creation process. so I reached out to the owner of a metaphysical space in my area where I have held collaging classes previously and er are working on a date for me to offer this, probably in October. I actually prefer Zoom and have thrown together "generative art making" events on the fly there and may offer something like that this fall. but must avoid spacing things too close together to avoid burnout. my nickname for autumn and winter are 'Social Demand Season". even for those of us who do not go to a lot of events the whole atmosphere of "go go go party party party" can be draining to introverts as we absorb ambience like a sponge.

so I would guess one workshop s month works be do-able.

I want to share with you a free virtual creativity event, not connected to our book group, that i am hosting from 4 to 6 pm Eastern time on World Peace Day, Sunday September 21st as one of many events of Campaign Nonviolence's Action Days this fall.
you are invited!!

The event will soon be posted on their website and I will post the link then. but until then here is the description:

Imagining Peace with Heart and Hands!
CONTACT: Laurie Pollack
CONTACT email: Webpoet1@aol.com

EVENT DESCRIPTION To create change we must imagine it. Let's each create our own vision of the change we want to see in the world, using our heart and hands to create spontaneous art and writing, then share it with each other. A free virtual two hour fun creativity session open to all/no skills required. Just bring your hopes and dreams and any materials you would enjoy playing with: ie crayons, pens, paint, paper, cloth, collage items, glue, clay.
Zoom link provided to participants.

My International book club (which I'm leading on the Odyssey September 21) meets the third Sunday of the month at 4pm EDT so I can't make it. But your event sounds wonderful, Laurie, and I'm glad you posted it. I hope you get a lot of responses.

Speaking of vision (which is so essential since so many of us feel beset by catastrophic fears), I posted the following on Pete Buttigieg's substack in response to so much negativity about how America is homophobic and would never elect a gay president. And I've been getting hundreds of likes ever since. Gee! People need to keep putting what they want to see out there in airwaves... We have to counter our fears with vision.

What I posted --
"And in this racist country, we elected a black President. We've got to stop thinking, "no, he could never win". What if everyone had thought that about Obama? Change starts with vision, and I have a very positive world-changing vision of Pete Buttigieg in the White House.

I just went to part of a tribute to the spiritual world-changer, Joanna Macy, who died in July. One of the facilitators read a poem that Joanna translated from Rilke:

Go to the Limits of Your Longing
Written by Rainer Maria Rilke
Book of Hours, I 59
Translated and read by Joanna Macy

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.

More on my Peace Creativity event September 21st. note that this is not an Interfaith Book Group Event but please email me if you are interested. also you may send the below to any friends you feel may be drawn to it.

======

You are invited to join "Creating Peace With Hands and Heart",  a free interfaith Zoom creativity gathering  Sunday September 21st, from 4 to 6 pm (US Eastern time) where we will each in our own way create something expressing what peace, justice, equity and/or freedom would look like to us. 


This event is one of many events of  Campaign Nonviolence's Action Days for Peace and Nonviolence and is being held on fall equinox and World Day of Peace.  


You can use any medium you want. It can be a poem.  A drawing. A cartoon.  You can create a song. A dance. Color/scribble. Paint. Make up a chant or prayer.   Write down a recipe. 


No right or wrong. No judgment. No critique. No skill required. 


We will take part in a guided meditation asking Spirit/Source/our higher self/Mother Earth etc what a gentler healed world looks/sounds/feels like. 


Then we will play and create individually as kids do before we get told "you are not a real artist or writer" and "you cannot change the world" .   Asking ourselves what if I am? What if WE can?


Finally come together and share  what we have created. And share how we feel inspired to take part in bringing this out  into a world deeply in need of healing. Building hope !! 


Just gather beforehand: your imagination. Sense of adventure. And any physical  materials you will need. 


And come prepared to explore and rekindle hope.


Please email me at webpoet1@aol.com  if this calls to you and you  would like to sign up. 


Please share this info with any friends you know who you feel would like to also be part of this creative space and ask THEM  to email me directly if interested. 


To  create a safe space, the Zoom link will be shared only with those signed up. Please do not circulate it. 


Looking forward to imagining a kinder world together. 


Laurie Pollack

Webpoet1@aol.com 
610-742-1006

This event sounds wonderful, Laurie!! (Creating Peace With Hands and Heart") I wish I could attend but my International Books Club meets 4-5:30pm on the third Sunday of every month and we're doing a two month on a book I teach every year - The Odyssey. I hope that some of the members here will attend that Creating Peace gathering.

KINDNESS CINQUAIN
Let's make
America
Kind again, welcoming
To immigrants and respectful
To all.

Tracy, I really like your Kindness Cinquain

At today's book discussion poetry came up. and it was suggested that I post here about a poetry sharing circle I am part of. I started the group in 2017 and we are now organized by a team: me and my friends Shanda and Susan.
we have met only on Zoom since 2020 and despite our name: Philly Poetic Resistance, we have attendees from all over even as far as Ireland. ww decided after the pandemic we did not wanr to lose the wider connection.

We meet one Wednesday evening monthly usually either the 3rd or 4th Wednesday at 7 pm US Eastern time.

Each of us who wants to shares a poem they have written OR a poem that has moved them by someone else.

we welcome everyone. our attendees range from published poets to people exploring poetry for the first time, stepping into saying "I am a poet" .

For this reason we do not do critique or workshopping but just listen and if the reader wishes, offer -- positive-- feedback such as "the way you described the ocean really moved me because..."

There is an optional monthly prompt but you do not need to follow it.

we usually have around 10 to 12 at each circle. you can read or just listen. reading list is created by Shanda, who is our MC, when the Zoom starts, no need to sign up to read in advance.

I am the Zoom host and so once I create the link I can email you the lini for the next circle, October 29th, if you want to try our group out.
my email us webpoet1@aol.com
Laurie