Annoucing a new poetry thing (and looking for collaborators)

Before Christmas (on this blog and elsewhere) we curated a series of beautiful contributions of poems, videos and songs produced by what is starting to feel like a developing Proost community. It was a lovely thing to be part of and this has given us an interesting template for future collaborative work.

During this run of daily posts, in the busy days of preparation, when it seems we have so little time for reflection, we released two poetry podcasts. These followed a simple format – three poets each reading two poems then talking about them in the round and allowing them to take us into deeper connection. I participated in both and they were profund, beautiful and even sacred.

If you have not had the chance to listen to them yet (and given the pre-Christmas pressure, you are forgiven) then here they are.

The first featured two Australian poets, Talitha Fraser and Stevie Wills. It was extraordinary.

The next featured two old friends of mine, Mark Berry and Ali Matthew. There was no guarantee that the magic of the first poetry pod would be repeated, but afterwards it felt like I was emerging from a great forest or an ancient cathedral.

In reflecting on these sessions, we think there is so much here that we want to continue. The sense of community, a genuine exchange of hearts, the way that poetry always takes us deeper, the conversation about things that matter, the mutual ancouragement of voices and poems that might otherwise never be heard. The deep generous spirituality woven through it all.

In other words, these podcasts seem to gather so much of what we hope that the new Proost is all about…

…so we want to make this a new regular podcast stream.

The idea is to develop a small team of people to ‘chair’ these discussions and for each podcast to involve at least two more poets on each episode. To connect with these poets, we will be casting the net as wide as possible, looking to connect with poetic voices who are exploring spirituality through this medium – after all, is not poetry first and foremost a spiritual discipline?

If you are interested in this, please drop me a line. If you know of other poets that we should be talking to, then it would be great to hear about them.

How this all develops will depend on the community that gathers around it – as with all Proost activities – but it genuinely feels as though this simple format offers a brand new way to do reflection and spiritual adventure.