Poems for Our Times is a chance to slow down, explore contemporary poetry, and connect with your inner writer. Hosted by writer, workshop facilitator, and meditation teacher, Grace Bialecki.
Poetry is a place of solace, a place of mystery, a place where we can delve deeper into live’s questions and return with unexpected answers. In our scattered world, reading poetry together is a way of connecting with our shared humanity. It’s a way of slowing the pace of our lives, so we can pay attention to new words and ideas. In this hour-long salon, we will read selections from American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time compiled by former poet laureate, Tracy K. Smith. After discussing these works, we’ll respond to prompts and tune into our own creativity. By exploring contemporary American poetry together, we’ll come away with an understanding of our poetic zeitgeist, as well as tools for bringing poetry into our daily lives.
Hosted by writer, workshop facilitator, and meditation teacher, Grace Bialecki. For more of her work, visit her website or find her on Twitter and TikTok.
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In addition to series tickets, you will get access to our community Discord (with a channel for this series to chat between events)—as well as free salon tickets each month, discounts, free members-only events, and more.
Date Episode January 9, 2024 Introducing Poems for Our Time [Free Episode]
Interested in cultivating your inner poet? Join us for the opening session of Poems for Our Time where we’ll slow down, explore contemporary poetry, and connect with our creativity. Hosted by writer, workshop facilitator, and meditation teacher, Grace Bialecki.January 23, 2024 Poems for Our Time: Remembering Childhood
We’ll start this series off by reading “The Field Trip” by Ellen Voigt and discussing the dynamics of childhood and how to capture it on the page. Our writing exercise will revolve around these ideas and how to put words to this time that is layered with emotions and changes as we look back at it.February 6, 2024 Poems for Our Time: Warring Siblings
This session will focus on the tumult of sibling relationships and how poetic form can mirror this turbulence, as we read “Sister as Moving Object” by Jan Beatty. In our own writing, we’ll see if we can capture the chaos of these relationships.February 20, 2024 Poems for Our Time: Witnessing Destruction
Destruction is both inevitable and shocking. How can words convey its power and its horror? We’ll read “No” by Joy Harjo that manages to do just this, then bring these ideas into our own work as we write about a time everything fell apart.March 5, 2024 Poems for Our Time: The Miraculous
Poetry is designed for the miracles of daily life. We’ll see how Kevin Young’s poem “The Crowning” captures the miraculous with its unexpected words and twists. From there, we’ll practice writing about a time when the world astounded us.March 19, 2024 Poems for Our Time: Inevitable Loss
Sometimes loss is so incomprehensible, we can’t face it straight on. We’ll read Matthew Rasmussen’s poem “Reverse Suicide” and talk about how his oblique approach allows us to see new angles and experience grief in different ways.April 2, 2024 Poems for Our Time: Giving Objects Agency
Poems have the capacity to push the bounds of our imaginations, especially when authors introduce a new reality. We’ll read “Downhearted” by Ada Límon and talk about extending metaphors and creating distinct worlds for our own work.April 23, 2024 Poems for Our Time: Boundless Joy
How can we convey joy with words on the page? Some poems take us to unexpected places, and we’ll look at the way “At Pegasus” by Terrance Hayes brings nightclub to life.May 7, 2024 Poems for Our Time: An Ending
The way a poem ends can dramatically change its tenor and meaning. We’ll read “Romanticism 101” by Dean Young, talk about endings in poems, and practice finding that moment of resonance in our own work.
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