Your donation gives access to the recording of the benefit, a transcript, and a gift from Mark Nepo of a document with all the readings and poems from the evening. (See your receipt.)
Spirituality & Practice is delighted that Mark Nepo provided a reading of some of his wonderful poetry as a “Benefit” for our fund to redesign the website. A longtime friend of S&P, he is profiled in our Living Spiritual Teachers Project, and we have chosen eleven of his books as one of the “Best Spiritual Books” in the year they were published. Beloved as a poet, workshop leader, and storyteller, his spiritual writing first came to our attention with his 2000 bestseller The Book of Awakening, a daybook tapping into the wisdom of the world’s religions and the depths of contemporary psychology. That gem of a book also introduced us to his poetry, and we have looked forward ever since to reading the many poems seeded through his writing.
In a large collection of his poems, The Way Under the Way, Nepo says this about poetry:
“This is the medicine of poetry: that through raw and honest reflection, we deepen our conversation with life. The purpose of poetry and expression is to make life real, to remove everything that gets in the way, and to help us live."
This has certainly been our experience of Nepo’s poetry, and we invite you watch our replay video of his reading that was recorded live on Wednesday, December 7. Between poems, Mark also discusses his theme of “The Chord in Our Heart” and provides some insight into where the heart of poetry begins for him.
All the proceeds for donations and tickets will go into a fund to redesign the Spirituality & Practice website:
- updating our look and features for our worldwide audience;
- adding a robust “Wisdom Room” with videos of practice instructions, interviews, readings, meditations, and more;
- creating multiple ways for you to identify the content you need and save it;
- developing an app for quick access to your preferred practices and resources;
- and illustrating more ways that all of life is a spiritual practice through Spiritual Literacy and resources for spiritual journeys.