Of course it's cool that so much research literature is now available online.

But my fingers had begun to tingle at the idea of chasing down this particular book accessible only in an out-of-the-way library—leafing through archives—the thrill of adventure!—when (sigh) I found an electronic copy I could download.

In view of some recent conversations, I have been thinking about the idiom of poetry: what it asks from its readers and supporters. Generosity rooted in curiosity—not judgment, but the willingness to explore/engage/expand with. (In that way, it can make us better humans, perhaps, if we live in that way in the world.)

To me, the best poetry comes out of a force that moves outside colonial, domesticated enclosures. Can its physicality stay liberated through all the modes of transmission?—that is the question.

While reading poetry, if our bodies have not remembered the codes of energetic safety—and they come across poetry that threatens their equilibrium/status quo, they react and try to make the poetry safer. 

Safer poetry is not necessarily what our soul/the world soul needs. 

Leaning into the work of inner liberation that is continually inviting us into its play and process is also perhaps one of our responsibilities, so as to grow in community with poetry. As we liberate critical parts of us from the domination-based illusion, we allow poetry to move through us with the force of liberation. 

​What happens if instead of considering a part of our own/another's self 'wrong,' we become curious about it?

If, instead of filling words with predetermined meanings, we become curious about each other's experiences?

​What's going to moisten what has dried?—is it compassion, does it use another word? 

How do we relent, reclaim, ready ourselves, persist, reinfuse?

At the introductory Women's Visionary Poetry and Fiction class (for CIIS Women's Spirituality)--

We dedicated our participation to grandmothers + our younger selves, partners + dads, teachers + foremother poets, the hidden ones. Told stories from the future. Were chosen by words carrying secrets.

Readings included Alexis DeVeaux + Alexis Pauline Gumbs + Walidah Imarisha; Cecilia Vicuña; Mary Mackey; and more. 

To create a class is a little like creating a portal—and the beginning is the most exciting moment of all. Full of possibilities.