Mentor Meditation: H.D.’s Trilogy
updated dates & times!
Every other autumn Wednesday
September 30 - December 23
7:15-9pm/EST
Dates: September 30, October 14 & 28, November 11 & 25, December 9 & 23
$210-310 sliding scale
Part meditation, part craft-study, part generative workshop, this is a space to move slowly, together, with curiosity and care.
In Trilogy, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) refers to “the rare intangible thread / that binds all humanity” and almost conversely to “peril, strangely encountered, strangely endured, / marks us;// we know each other / by secret symbols.” This resonant, esoteric collection of poems reaches forward through the 1940s’ contemporary violences and backwards into and across mythologies.
Together, we’ll explore H.D.’s esoteric, elegant, bizarre, endlessly allusive and elusive Trilogy (which includesThe Walls Do Not Fall, Tribute to the Angels, and The Flowering of the Rod) via mindful reading, re-reading, responding, meditating, contemplating and discussing. Our discussion will center around H.D.’s craft and content, and will also allow us to track our individual and collective relationships to a single text as it deepens, shifts, provokes and inspires our own creative practices. To that end, we’ll spend some class time generating original poems that grow out of our shared meditation on H.D.’s work. As we explore and discuss HD's understandings of the spiritual and mythological, so we'll also be exploring and discussing our own.
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In the first six sessions, we will read aloud together, engage in meditative reading and discussion experiments, write in response to prompts, and optionally share. The final session will be for a culminating discussion and sharing.
Sessions 1 & 2 focus on The Walls Do Not Fall (the first book of Trilogy).
Sessions 3 & 4 focus on Tribute to the Angels.
Session 5 & 6 focus on The Flowering of the Rod.
Session 7 is the culminating discussion.
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suggested:
$300=pressured resources $375=balanced resources $450=abundant resources
If MENTOR MEDITATION sounds like what you need and you want to join but can’t pay in full, or at all, please include a brief message when you register. I offer payment plans by request, accommodated prices and occasional comps to those facing financial hardship, especially returning participants, and those experiencing lived racism, transphobia, and other forms of systemic discrimination.
*It’s up to you to determine where you fit on the sliding scale, given the uniqueness of your context. Some general guidelines:
Pressured can mean that employment is uncertain and/or paying monthly bills is challenging.
Balanced can mean that employment is fairly secure, monthly bills get reliably paid, and occasional small luxuries are possible.
Abundant can mean that employment and/or finances are secure, savings and/or assets exist, and/or property is owned.
These are not strict guidelines, and you best know your circumstances. Please pay what you can.
Please also note that paying at the top of the sliding scale makes it easier for me to offer more accommodated and comped slots to those who need.