Love, Death, Desire & Madness
Writing into the Sacredness of our Humanity
Facilitated by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
7:00 - 9:00pm ET, Wednesdays
Jan 8, Jan 15, Jan 22, and Jan 29, 2025
Workshop Credit Cost: 1 credit (Click Here to Purchase a Credit Package)
à la carte Price: General Public - $125.00 general public; One Spirit Alumni - $100.00
“We are writing not to create something “good” but to explore what is true–knowing that sometimes what is true invites paradox, mystery and not knowing.”
One of the greatest gifts of poetry is it allows us to explore our humanness with compassion and playfulness, even when the subjects challenge us. Psychologist Michael Brant DeMaria identifies four topics we often shy from meeting openly—love, death, desire and madness—and in this four-part workshop series, we’ll circle each of them through reading and writing poetry.
Curiosity will be our guide. How might exploring raw, vulnerable states open us to depth, startle us with wonder, and invite a more profound relationship with the sacred? In each session, we’ll read poems, write poems of our own, discuss process, and have a chance to share the writing we do together—or not. All levels of writing are welcome.
Who this workshop is for
This workshop is for people who are curious about how writing might help them show up and be more present in their lives, people who are looking for another tool for exploring mindfulness. They need no prior poetry experience. They don’t even need to like poetry. It is especially for people who worry that their writing won’t be good. We won’t aim for good writing–we will only aim to write what is true.
By relaxing our expectations on an end product, participants can expect to surprise themselves with 1) the joy that is possible when writing and 2) the power of wonder. In this class, writing is foremost a practice in self-compassion. The poems themselves are a byproduct. The real benefit to this practice is that it can change the way we meet the world.
What you’ll explore
How reading poems can help us explore our own lives
How writing can be a tool for entering difficult topics in a playful or non-judgmental way
How practicing self-compassion can change our experience of writing
What you’ll experience
Register for this four-part workshop series to read, listen to, and converse on poems related to our themes, write collaboratively, write using prompts or your own intuition, and share in small groups with specific guidelines for listeners.
Following this workshop, you’ll become more self-compassionate in your writing practice, be ready to create your own writing prompts, and understand how to use writing as a tool not to change the world but to change the way you see the world.
Four Sessions | 7:00 - 9:00pm ET, Wednesdays – Jan 8, Jan 15, Jan 22, and Jan 29, 2025
Week 1 | Love: Exploring Self-Compassion
We’ll read and discuss poems on self-compassion, exploring it as a starting point for a creative writing practice, and then write and share our own poems.
Group Poem
Writing your own poems
Sharing and conversing about process
Week 2 | Death: Circling Our Mortality
We’ll read and discuss poems exploring mortality, and then write and share our own.
Group Poem
Writing your own poems
Sharing and conversing about process
Week 3 | Desire: The Tides of Longing
We’ll read and discuss poems on our sensual selves–how we embrace and resist them–and then write and share our own.
Group Poem
Writing your own poems
Sharing and conversing about processInvitation to write one’s own Psalm
Week 4 | Madness: The Art of Going Against the Grain
We’ll read and discuss poems on madness–as waking dream state, audaciousness and being “a fool,”–and then write and share our own.
Group Poem
Writing your own poems
Sharing and conversing about process
About the Facilitator
*photo credit Joanie Schwarz
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (she/her) is a poet, teacher, and writing facilitator who co-hosts the Emerging Form podcast on creative process. Her daily audio series, The Poetic Path, is on the Ritual app. Her poems have appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, PBS News Hour, O Magazine, American Life in Poetry, and Carnegie Hall stage. Her most recent poetry collections include The Unfolding and All the Honey. In January, 2024, she became the first poet laureate for Evermore, helping others explore grief, bereavement, wonder and love through poetry. One-word mantra: Adjust.
Where can I access the workshop?
All One Spirit workshops are hosted on Hylo - our online community platform. Workshop access will be provided via email after registration is complete. Please check your spam and/or promotions folders for your confirmation email from One Spirit. You will be guided to create a Hylo account, if you don’t already have one.