Poetry Night for Tiratanaloka

Last night I had the great pleasure of cohosting a poetry night to raise funds for the Tiratanaloka [Un]limited project! Tiratanaloka is the main women's ordination training retreat centre for the Triratna Buddhist movement, and they are fundraising so they can move from their current site to a bigger property. ​

They say 'right now dozens are waiting for a space on each retreat, and with over 1000 on our database, many more would come if we could host them.' I've attended several retreats at Tiratanaloka over the last 7 years and I can testify that the lack of space is not owing to any expectations of luxury; they sure are packing the bums onto the meditation cushions! I actually gave up trying to eat meals in the dining room because I just found it far too cramped and last time I visited I decided to camp instead of take a shared bedroom so I could have a bit more space. It's not even possible to fit everyone in the shrine room for some of the meditation practices so they really do need to move. When the team announced that they were looking for a new home, I was delighted to hear it and wanted to give financial support but being on low income, the best I could do was try a spot of fundraising myself!

Fast forward a good 18 months or more to a beautiful early summer evening, and 13 of us (lucky for some; I think I counted right!) gathered together at the Shrewsbury Buddhist Centre to share our own writing, or poems by others that have inspired or moved us, in aid of Tiratanaloka.

I had been a little worried about numbers as I'd accidently arranged the evening (back in January, I hasten to add) to clash with a much bigger fundraising weekend for the same project, hosted at Taraloka, another Triratna retreat centre for women (where I lived for 6 years!). I needn't have worried; it seemed to me that we had just the right amount of time for myself and my cohost Bethany to each share a few of our pieces with plenty of room for everyone else who wanted to read too. We even fitted in a tea break! Our generous poets (and highly valued audience members!) kindly gave a total of £130 for Tiratanaloka, and several people asked if we'd run another poetry night soon, which I'm pretty sure will happen in the not too distant future.

It was a truly lovely evening and very moving at times to hear such a depth and range of human experience being shared with the kind of raw authenticity that I've only ever encountered at smaller, more intimate events. It was also an exciting opportunity for me to debut a collection of poems that I'd actually written whilst on retreat at Tiratanaloka last year. Titled Seventeen Myths for the Solstice at Summer, the seasonally appropriate collection poured itself out during a four day period of silence, which happened to coincide with the summer solstice. Seven of the 'myths' were in fact illustrations but the ten poems presented themselves as a little journey, which I shared in their entirety, including an experimental bridging between verse with my sansula. The transporting and otherworldly sound of the thumb piano-cum-tiny frame drum was so appreciated that two of my fellow poets requested it between their own poems! I certainly wasn't expecting sansula commissions on the spot!

The myth of the Grasses

I've recorded the first three verses of the Seventeen Myths; The Myth of the Poet, The Myth of the Poem (Part I) and The Myth of the Poem (Part II). You can listen to those here, and if you enjoy it, please consider a donation to Tiratanaloka [Un]limited, which would be a generous and wonderful gift indeed! Thank you! Xx