As a psych major and a religion minor at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Jim Moreno found himself drawn to the religions of East and South Asia. He had visited those temples in Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Japan during his Navy enlistment. But then, in the religion department of the university, he discovered Professor Taylor Scott and his class Music, Eroticism, and Madness. The retired Episcopalian priest was a dynamic, radical, irreverent, source of thunder and lightning that rained in the classroom. At 25 years of age, a university junior, Moreno had started to understand the fire inside that directed social justice activist choices in his life. Especially after his service in Vietnam’s southern rivers. This three hour class for beginning or seasoned poets will explore the path that leads to finding our eclectic mystic, needing no middleman or middlewoman to find your truth, spirituality, and spoken words that can resonate with your religion or maybe not. Our vehicle on Sunday, August 28 will be the poetry of Joy Harjo, Muriel Rukeyser, Alice Walker, Thich Nhat, Hahn, Daniel Berrigan, and three poetry anthologies. Pablo Neruda reminded that as poets our job is to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable. Another poet promised that when we write spontaneous, first thought, best thought poetry we find out who we are and who we’re not. This class will be taught in two 90-minute segments divided into quotes, film clips, poems, and stories from Jim Moreno’s experience in writing, teaching, and performing life. Actual composing and reading of your compositions then follows. Beginning and seasoned participants are welcomed to the Container of respect and safety that are the foundation of Moreno’s classes. If you are looking for a critique group, this is not the class for you. This is a write from your heart poem-making class. Click here to learn more & register for the class!
