DATE: Ongoing Thursday evenings beginning February 23, 2012
TIMES: 6:30 PM-8: 30 PM [EST]
LOCATION: TBA in Conway MA or Shelburne Falls, MA live or ONLINE
COST: Recommended donation $10 per session to pay instructor for resource materials handed out each week and venue rent or whatever is affordable.
CONTACT: Jacqueline Gens (603) 219-9172 to indicate if you would like to participate or jacquelinegens108@gmail.com
WHERE: This course is Online via Moodle 24/7 or in person
LIMITED to 6 people face to face with a couple of people allowed to skype into the class. Online course limited to 20.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The primary purpose of this workshop is to encourage practitioners of mediation to develop their poetic skills and overcome self-consciousness as they celebrate our practice lineages—through the medium of poetry. Participants will be introduced to the rich heritage of works represented both in the Buddhist literary tradition beginning with Songs of the Terigatha and Terigathi from the time of the Buddha and other major traditions including Tantric masters, Cold Mountain poets, Zen poets such as Issa, contemporary Western Buddhist poets, ancient & modern Tibetan poetry as well as the vast contemporary and international canon of poetry for inspiration to our own work.
Each week the class will read and examine a variety of poetic forms and works that exemplify a particular contemplative view. Assignments of simple writing exercises or meditation to “loosen” the mind from fixed mind to arrive at fresh perception will be presented as a basis for creative work drawing on the work of Allen Ginsberg’s Mind Writing Slogans. While the emphasis will not be on critiquing work, it is expected that participants will develop a body of contemplative work, which might culminate in a group reading at some point or small chapbook. Some of the forms introduced will be haiku, doha, haibun, villanelle, ekphrastic poem, litany, free verse, call and response, list poem, and experimental exercises such as cut up may also be considered.
Occasional guest academics/poets/scholars from within the Dzogchen and Shambhala communities and poet friends of the facilitator will be invited to participate via skype or teleconference to discuss various sacred forms or special topics. Included will be many recorded and textual resources collected for over thirty years.
Facilitated by Jacqueline Gens, a founder of the New England College MFA Program in Poetry where she has been co-director since 2001. For many years she worked at the Naropa University, the first accredited Buddhist Colelge in America and for the late poet Allen Ginsberg with whom she studied contemplative poetics. She is a resident of Conway MA and active at Tsegyalgar East, Choegyal Namkhai Norbu's North American Gar. At present she is working on The Mansion of Elements—sixty poems celebrating the animal/element astrological combinations from the point of view of mind training and astrology.
