How Collaborative Poetry Strengthens Heart Courage [poem & commentary]

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On February 2, 2025, nine contemplatives* gathered at Still Place Retreat Center in Mt. Rainier, Maryland for a Poetic Vespers Day Retreat on the theme of “A Poem’s Heartbeat.” This is the second Poetic Vespers that Judy Walsh-Mellett and I have facilitated together. Click here to learn more about our first Poetic Vespers retreat on the theme of “Call & Response,” which we hosted in February 2024.

During this year’s evening vesper hour, we considered how we can align our own heartbeats with the heartbeat of poem. We drummed the iamb form, which mirrors the heart’s “da-DUM” rhythm. We read poems that dance the ancient iambic way.

We then drafted our own iambic lines for a collaborative poem titled, “Take Heart, These Longings Light Our Lamps.” Each poet wrote our respective lines in response to the given title; the title serves as a centripetal force, even as the poem explores the centrifugal fear and chaos of this 2025 moment.

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In last year’s poetic reflection, I explore the value and practice of writing collaborative poetry. For this year, I’ll simply share that bringing together a variety of voices into one poem practices what the poem below preaches; this poetic choir sings courage through the very act of gathering in verse.

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There is an “I” who “reaches out,” and who “will feel grounded;” there is a “you” who asks how to be fearless and tell the truth? And perhaps most importantly, the poem also speaks in first person plural: “what grounding pulse remains to guide us now?,” these verses wonder, even as they also declare, “we grasp tendrils of each other,” and “longing is our heart’s way to be holy.”

Dear reader, I wonder what gatherings are strengthening you this season? Who are the “we” and “us” who help you take heart and light evening lamps?

I’ll conclude this reflection with a blessing that comes from the poem above. This particular line arose during the Poetic Vespers retreat, as a result of cumulative and shared conversation: “may we now notice where radiance gleams.”

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Deep gratitude to the following contemplatives who contributed poetry lines for this collaborative poem: Gordon Creamer, Miriam Dixon, Susan Henderson, Mary Beth Keenan, Magda Leon-Rodriguez, Carol Spring, Judy Walsh-Mellett, and Melanie Weldon-Soiset.

*Judy and I took turns taking a group picture; hence the two pictures of eight people each :).