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Writer's pictureKathy Bresler

Consciousness Concierge Volume 14

Updated: Oct 4, 2023

For the first edition of ALTAR Adventure Club, a small but mighty group of us gathered for indoor Picnic and Poetry. Tracy Levy and I brought our favorite poems to the table, literally, and everyone chose two at random to co-create our poetry “menu” which we then took turns reading and relishing. We reveled in a flowing conversation that connected one poem to the next, and one woman to the next, like a string of pearls. It was a delicious experience in so many ways, and I’m still buzzing with the many flavors of the experience.


Poetry means so much to me that it’s almost hard to describe. Poems explain myself to me: lovingly, gently, surprisingly, shockingly, and every other way. I've been wanting to create a regular poetry gathering for a while, and I think we’ve finally landed on the formula. I’m happy to announce that we’ll be offering Potluck Poetry once a month going forward to continue this beautiful practice of sharing and savoring in the round. I look forward to that tremendously. But for now, I want to offer you a virtual version of Picnic and Poetry... to recreate the magic of it as a digital adventure for all of you who couldn’t be there in person.


Below, you’ll find a sort of smorgasbord in the form of poems paired with SoulCollage® images that came to mind as I read them. I’ve plucked some juicy lines for you to savor and encourage you to click on any of the links if you’d like a further taste (or to devour the whole poem). I’ve linked to the poet reading the work wherever possible.

I hope you enjoy this feast for the mind, heart, and soul.


Love,

Kathy


This was originally sent to our Consciousness Concierge subscribers on August 12th, 2023. Want to receive each carefully curated volume straight to your inbox? Sign up for the list here.


The Facts of Life by Pádraig Ó Tuama

That life is real and if you can survive it, well, survive it well with love and art and meaning given where meaning’s scarce.

soulcollage card featuring a crying baby, doorway with silhouetted couple in the background and a young girl looking through the door

I’m learning so many different ways to be quiet…

soulcollage card featuring a dark haired woman with ornate wallpaper over her face. an image of a woman from behind is in foreground

What We Build by Sarah Kay

I spend most of my time wondering if I should be somewhere else.


So instead, I have learned to shape the words thank you with my first breath each morning, my last breath every night.

soulcollage card featuring a woman walking down a winding road and a distorted image of a jogging woman with a barbie doll head

Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things – For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

soulcollage card featuring grass in front of a blue sky, with a man painting pink clouds in the sky legs with pink rainboots stick out of the grass. a child with binoculars looks out to the foreground

Enough by David Whyte

Enough. These few words are enough. If not these words, this breath. If not this breath, this sitting here. This opening to the life we have refused again and again until now.


Until now.

soulcollage card featuring a watercolor background and a gold eastern religious statue in the foreground

On Children by Kahlil Gibran

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

soulcollage card featuring a long hallway made of purple and pink glass. at the end of the hallway, a doorway into a yellow room is open with a woman and young child holding hands

The Lanyard by Billy Collins

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart, strong legs, bones and teeth, and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered, and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp. And here, I wish to say to her now, is a smaller gift—not the worn truth


that you can never repay your mother,


soulcollage card featuring many images of mothers with their children. some are hugging, some are playing, and some are just walking together

Let it Heal by Ruth Forman


break the ground emerge clean and willing sorry and thankful new and quiet rejoice

soulcollage card featuring a large tree at the top, then an image of an alpine valley. a woman doing trapese on a large swing is overlaid the alpine valley

Belonging by John O'Donohue


May you arise each day with a voice of blessing whispering in your heart May you find a harmony between your soul and your life

a soulcollage card with a flame or solar flare in the background. A woman closes her eyes and is rubbing her neck on the right, on the left a man looks down and holds his hands near his chest and neck. An image of earth over a leaf is in the bottom right

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