I would really appreciate your help in getting the message out there about this project- if you are a blogger/facebooker/twitterer would you mind reposting?
For a while now, I have been chewing on an idea about putting together a collection of poetry.
From time to time people send me things they have written- asking for feedback. I always really struggle to give feedback- I want to be honest, open and encouraging, but poetry is really subjective. What I find however, is that there is almost always gold in the dust. Most people who write do so to get into the depth of things, and the process opens us up- in my view, it opens us up to God (however you understand this.)
Much of this writing is personal- like many of the things I write, its primary purpose is personal spiritual discipline. However, some poems have a life beyond this- and become vehicles that allow other people to travel. It is these poems that I am interested in.
We are used to being told that our poetic voices are worth nothing- either because poetry has become so elitist, or because we doubt our inner voice. Poetry also has little or no commercial value in the consumer culture that we live in. However, we believe that poetry is more important now than ever- we need our poets our prophets and our malcontents.
So, if you write poetry and you have material that you think may be helpful to the spiritual journey of other people, then you might like to consider this;
We are looking for contributions to an collection of poetry to be published by Proost.
We intend this is to be a collection of voices in and around the margins of our churches and will bring together poets whose writing is not normally heard to be a resource for worship, contemplation, prayer and even faithful prophetic criticism.
Poems should fit broadly into one of the following categories/chapter headings;
- Faith/doubt
- Becoming
- Losing
- The world is beautiful
- The world is broken
- Inside/outside
- Wilderness
- Laughing out loud
- The far horizon
- Learning to love
Notes on selection process;
We are looking for poems with something to say- poems that open us up rather than close us down. Poetry at its best can be challenging, disturbing, uplifting, transforming and much more. If you write poems like this we want to hear from you. We are not interested in reputation or CV- rather we want to encourage those of you with a poetic/prophetic voice to let others hear it.
We will select poems for the collection if they fit the broad (and generous) ethos of the book and if they are of a quality and spiritual depth that moves us. This means that some very good poems may not be selected. We hope that you will understand that we lack the resources to give feedback on the reasons for our editorial decisions.
We would impose no proscribed form on the poems, but broadly speaking poems should be no more than 35-40 lines.
You may send up to 8 poems– simply because we know how difficult it can be to choose. We hope that this too might be a way of gathering some more unusual voices- many of us have at least one pearl in amongst the pebbles.
Please send poems by e-mail to thisfragiletent@gmail.com
About Proost
Proost is a small publishing outlet aimed at gathering together resources from the creative edges of Church. Most of the material is made available for download- although hard copies of books can be purchased via a print-on-demand service.
As recompense for your hard work and creativity, poets published will be eligible for a free download of their choice from the Proost website- which is chock full of music, art, movies, worship resources and books.
We look forward to reading your poems!
this fragile tent 
i snt some via email, they bounced back….
? No idea why Sonja
Try this e mail instead- thisfragiletent.gmail.com
Sorry about that
Chris
thanks Chris, they are on their way x
Reblogged this on Margo Roby: Wordgathering and commented:
Hello, everyone. In one way or another, we have seen Chris’ posts a number of times over the past couple of years. His call for poems seems a good opportunity for submissions. If your interest is piqued, read the whole post. Chris will be the first to tell you that his definition of spiritual is broad and not to be put off by the word. Look at his list of possibilities for topics.
I’ll see you tomorrow for Friday’s roundup of prompts.
Reblogged, Chris!
Reblogged this on Awakened Words and commented:
For those with a “spiritual” leaning to their poetry, check out this call for submissions.
Fantastic. Thankyou and reblogged
Reblogged this on Spinning Blackbirds and commented:
Please pass this around
I have a poem for inclusion but it is contained in my published book; I see nothing about the poems being non-published. Thanks.
Hi Lesley- no we have not specifically excluded published work, although we are particularly interested in poets who are not published- the ethos of Proost is to encourage and develop artists who might otherwise have no voice. however- so long as there are no rights problems (with other publisher) then please go ahead and submit.
Cheers
Chris
Thanks Chris – all rights are mine as I am an indie publisher.
Reblogged this on Susan Daniels Poetry and commented:
Anyone interested?
thisfrailetent.gmail.com or thisfrailetent@gmail.com
neither work.
I just noticed I forgot the ‘g’ both times…
Chris, there seems to be a problem with the email link, if you mean it to be a link. Only the t is linked and it goes to your aol address. Clarification, please!
Doh! will change it!
Sorry folks.
Chris
Also, the second suggestion, to Sonja, does not work. Not sure why it does for her as without @ it’s not an address. Isn’t life fun?!
it worked for me, as i used the email address on the website . smiles x
Mercy, Sonja. I am looking all over. Can you spell it out?
thisfragiletent@gmail.com
Umm. That’s what I tried, but will again. Thank you, Sonja.
I also see the problem if we go to the link.and don’t have an Outlook account. Odd since this is gmail. Ah well. One way or another.
Reblogged this on The Sand County and commented:
Susan Daniels led me to find this opportunity (thank you, Susan). And since I submitted some of my own work I felt compelled to share this link.
I tweeted it! 🙂
I would imagine you don’t expect any affirmations from my side but noble efforts hould always be allauded especially those of faith.>KB
Is there a submission deadline?
Not at present no- we are rather testing the waters with this project, so it will rather depend on how quickly we gather suitable material.
Chris
Thanks Chris. I have passed this along to some of my non-blogger friends who write poetry in this realm. I look forward to seeing the results!
Amber.
Hi all
Please note new FB page- hopefully the main portal for discussing aspects of this project going forward.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Proost-poetry-collection/229254447215997?fref=ts
Cheers!
Chris
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