Poetry and Vision
Meets from 8:00 – 9:30 pm
the second Thursday of each month
beginning January, 2008
Meets at 1407 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara, CA

Co-ordinator:  Joe Miller
joe@worldculture.org

In January, we only just touched the surface of that deep living fire which is William Blake.

In February and March, we turned our attention to Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet.  This is a return to Rilke, as last year we explored a few of the Sonnets to Orpheus. Translator Stephen Mitchell writes “Eloquent and personal, Rilke’s meditations on the creative process, the nature of love, the wisdom of children, and the importance of solitude offer a wealth of spiritual and practical guidance to anyone.” Stephen Mitchell’s translation, which can be found in paperback and a Modern Library hardcovercan also be found free online:
http://www.sfgoth.com/~immanis/rilke/letter8.html

In April and May, we will look at Walt Whitman's Song of Myself.  “Song of Myself is by far the greatest poem ever written by an American.  At each rereading I feel exhilarated, as if for the first time, by its freshness and breadth of vision, its bodiliness, its high spirits, its astonishing empathy, by the freedom and goofiness and dignity of its language, and, not least, by its spiritual insight.  It is a miracle of a poem.”  – Stephen Mitchell

“My own tribute to Walt would be this: that it is not necessary to read very much of him or very often—once you get the idea.  But at least once in any civilized lifetime he is likely to be . . . the most important of all reading.  None can foresee when the emergency may arise.”  – Christopher Morley
The poem is available online at:  http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/logr/log_026.html
Click here to print a schedule of meetings and readings