POETRY AS PORTAL
Embodiment, Nature, Metaphor, Mystery with Kristi Quillen, MA, MFA
Co-Sponsored by The Spring Creek Project and The Contemplative Studies Initiative at OSU
6 Tuesdays @ Marigold April 22 - May 27, 2025 | Retreat @ Shotpouch Cabin Saturday, May 31, 2025
Weekly Class: 6:30PM - 8PM | Retreat: 10:00AM - 3:00PM
Marigold [648 SW 2nd St. Suite 100, Corvallis, OR] | Shotpouch Cabin [Location Shared @ Registration]
[Sliding Scale] $200 • $230 • $260 50% scholarships available for students - apply here
ABOUT THE SERIES
Set aside everything you thought you knew about how to read poetry. Instead of taking a traditional academic approach to poetry study, we will learn methods of reading poetry intuitively, with the whole self. This program explores how poetry can be restorative, a portal for contemplation, and a means of cultivating the same skills we develop in contemplative practice. Through exploring a variety of contemporary poems and engaging with interfaith contemplative practices drawn from Insight meditation and mystical Christian traditions, we will restore a connection with ourselves, with each other, and with our larger world. This course is open to all — no previous experience with poetry is necessary, and those with much experience will find something new.
Through this series you will learn:
- To engage with poetry contemplatively — with mind, body, and intuition
- New poems and voices which may inspire you
- Restorative, contemplative practices drawn from different traditions
- Ways to connect and extend the practices learned to daily life and community
Supplies Needed:
- notebook or paper for written reflections
- pen
- comfortable clothing
SERIES OVERVIEW
Each session will focus on an element of poetry (imagery, music, metaphor), as well as an element of contemplation (attention, mind, body, emotions). We will actively practice contemplative methods through experiencing and reflecting on poems provided in class, sharing with each other, writing in our journals, and engaging in short periods of contemplation or meditation. We will apply the learnings of attention, listening, body attunement, and emotional awareness toward building connection with each other in this six-week community, ultimately looking to how we can extend this connection and renewal to our daily lives and the larger world. Six sessions will meet at Marigold, and all participants are invited to a free, culminating day-long retreat and workshop at Shotpouch Cabin on Saturday, May 31.
RETREAT OVERVIEW
For our final session, our group will take the practices learned together to a new setting for a day-long retreat at Shotpouch Cabin. While at this beautiful, 70-acre nature reserve in the Oregon Coast Range, about a 30-minute drive from Corvallis, we’ll explore how our new ways of approaching poetry translate far beyond words on a page. For instance, how might these practices help us experience the natural world with intuition and a deep sense of interconnection? How do you feel a place with your whole self? The retreat is co-sponsored by the Spring Creek Project, which, for the past 22 years, has hosted residencies, fellowships, workshops and gatherings at the Shoptouch Cabin and land to help people connect more deeply with the natural world.
SERIES SCHEDULE
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Week 1: April 22 |
Cultivating Attention |
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Week 2: April 29 |
Objects of Contemplation and Care |
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Week 3: May 6 |
Music and Body Awareness |
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Week 4: May 13 |
Listening for Connection |
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Week 5: May 20 |
Metaphor and Mystery |
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Week 6: May 27 |
Restoring Balance, Unfolding |
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Week 7 [Saturday] May 31 |
Retreat: Beyond the Page - Responding to the poetry all around us |
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For ability-related accommodations, please email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 541-737-4785. This program is not refundable after April 18th.
About the Instructor
Kristi Quillen MA, MFA
has always contemplated life and the spiritual through poetry. She began writing poetry in college, and it is her experience of poetry as a poet – tapping into the mystical and unexplainable through the creative process – that led her to reexamine how to teach and share poetry with others. Her time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica and residing in the country for nearly seven years impressed upon her the sacredness of slower and more attuned living. She mainly practices in the Insight meditation tradition but has also studied in the Christian Wisdom tradition. She has taught courses since 2006 to high school, university students, and adults in the US and internationally. She holds an MA in European Society from University College London and an MFA in creative writing, poetry from Oregon State University.