Golden Threads: Following the Spiritual Impulses in Poetry

An Online Day of Exploring Connections in Poetry and Spirituality

facilitated by Jerry Webber

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

10:00-11:30 a.m. (CDT) or 7:00-8:30 p.m. (CDT)

One of my favorite poets, William Stafford, believed that good poetry is written as a ball of thread, in which any little detail may be followed like a golden thread that leads to other explorations and discoveries.

Further, Stafford believed poetry should be read this way, too. The aim is not to tease out the poet’s intended meaning or to “understand the poem” in order to impose myself onto it. He warned readers of poetry against taking the end of a thread and pulling on it. Rather, the reader is simply a follower of the thread, an explorer, who notices a detail, an idea, an image, or a line, and then follows the thread for herself or himself.

Stafford used William Blake’s verse as a model:

I give you the end of a golden string,

Only wind it into a ball,

It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate

Built in Jerusalem’s wall.

Stafford encouraged readers to be open to everything in a poem, every nuance and detail, for “only the golden string knows where it is going, and the role for a writer or reader is one of following, not imposing.” In the end, Stafford believed, by following these threads, the writer or reader of poetry may find herself or himself closer to “the self most centrally yours,” which is also one of the aims of healthy spirituality.

On these poetry days, we will gather to follow golden threads together. Jerry will choose 6 - 8 poems for each session and email them to those registered for the gathering. We will meet online via Zoom. Our time together will begin with a period of silence. Then we will consider one poem at a time. After reading the poem, Jerry will offer some introductory comments on his own following of golden threads in the poem. Then those participating will be invited to share their own experience of the poem, what they hear in it, and any invitations they sense in the poem. (No one will be compelled to share . . . sharing is always entirely voluntary!) We will continue until all the poems for that day have been discussed or until we have given 90 minutes to following the poetic threads.

On each Golden Thread poetry day, there will be two opportunities to participate, one in the morning (10:00 – 11:30 a.m. Central time US/Canada) and one in the evening (7:00 – 8:30 pm. Central time US/Canada). The same poems will be used in both sessions. Your registration for this event will allow you to participate in either session (or both if you so choose).

The sessions do not assume any prior experience with poetry. The gatherings are open to anyone interested in listening to poetry, following its threads, and then participating in discussion related to the poems.

Registration for the poetry day is $13. Please register through the Eventbrite website.

Jerry Webber will facilitate these poetry days. As a part of his own spiritual explorations, Jerry has been reading and writing poetry for almost 25 years, sometimes following golden threads and sometimes imposing his own worldview on the poetry. He continues to find in poetry the voices, images, and threads that nurture his soul.