Dear friends,
I’m back on the road this week and will be mostly living out of my trusty bag that I am so inordinately attached to.
I bumped into a friend in Dublin airport while waiting for my flight last Tuesday morning. We hadn’t seen each other in a few years and had half an hour to talk before she went off to her gate — news; work; life; great to see you; let’s catch up. We will, too.
Another time, in another airport, I bumped into someone I used to know. We were both waiting for our delayed luggage to arrive on the carousel. I’d come from a long flight, felt sweaty, exhausted, and inhuman. An old colleague stood nearby and said, “I hear you’re gay now.” I’d always been gay; I just hadn’t been safe enough to tell. Truthfully, I’d always assumed my colleague was gay too. It was awkward and intimate. That encounter ended with a wry “I’m glad you’re doing well,” but no “let’s catch up.”
A friend was trying to decide whether he should move to Belfast. He’d visited me a lot from England, was at a loose end, and wondered about a job. He knew he could live at my place, so housing wasn’t an issue. He came to Belfast, had an interview, and on his walk back to my place bumped into two sets of friends of mine, one of whom invited him to dinner and a film. He moved, and it was glorious. We stayed up very late very often drinking cheap wine and laughing at atrocious evangelistic programmes on religious television stations.
I’m wondering why I’m so interested in these encounters. I bumped into an acquaintance on a busy street in New York once. On the one hand, the odds seem impossible. But on the other hand, Why not? The world is big and small, both, and we have reminders of this every day, sometimes feeling lost, sometimes feeling found.
I love bumping into people I wasn’t expecting to see. A small generosity of time is possible, even if there isn’t a lot of time. A little surprise. A moment of the unexpected.
When J.R.R. Tolkien was writing The Lord of the Rings, he had an imagination of a character named Strider who’d be part of the narrative. In his journal, he wrote about how he was surprised when Strider turned up in the story one day, arriving, as if he were the writer of his own story, not Tolkien. The unexpected encounter — that is, I think, what writing can be, when we allow it to be. Language coming from hands being guided by that untameable alchemy of association, chance, chaos, and curiosity.
I would love to hear from you about a time when you bumped into someone — a friend in an unexpected place, an acquaintance, a friend of a friend, an old lover, a previous enemy, a former neighbour ….
Poetry in the World
April 15 at 6pm, Cleveland, Ohio, US
I’m giving a poetry reading in the Donahue Auditorium at John Carroll University. No registration needed; just show up.
April 19–21, Round Top, Texas, US
I’m delighted to be one of the featured poets at the Round Top Poetry festival. Information and tickets here.
April 25 at 6-7:30pm, NYC, New York, US
I’ll be exploring conflict and change through poetry at an in-person event in partnership with the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University. You can register for free here. It is currently sold out, but we are working to find a new venue that can take more participants.
April 27, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
I’ll be offering both an afternoon workshop and an evening talk at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Details aren’t available yet, but I’ll post them here when they are.
May 8 at 9am (Pacific Time), online
I’m giving a talk at the Spiritual Directors Online Conference. Get $50 off the price of access to the entire conference (it runs from May 8–10) if you use the code Conf50, or $25 off the price of a day pass with the code SDI25; find details and registration here.
May 14, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
For you theologically interested folks, I’ll be speaking at the Festival of Homiletics. Info here.
May 17 at 2–4pm, Camden, Maine, US
I’ll be talking about the word “you” in poetry at the Camden Public Library. You can attend in person or over Zoom. The entire two-day festival is free; information here.
May 24–26, Boone, North Carolina, US
I’m leading a a 48-hour Poetry Unbound retreat, where there will be poetry readings, responding to prompts, and sharing. Information and registration here.
June 27–July 7, Patmos, Greece
I’m one of the speakers at the 10-night “Journeying into Common Good” salon, together with Krista Tippett, Allison Russell, JT Nero, and Joe Henry. More details here.
August 7 at 6-7:30pm ET, online
I’ll be exploring conflict and change through poetry at an online event in partnership with the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University. You can register for free here.
August 23–25, Northamptonshire, England
I’ll be at the Greenbelt Festival, and, among other events, I will be interviewing the brilliant Jenny Mitchell whose poem “A Man in Love with Plants” we featured on a Season 7 episode of Poetry Unbound. You can go here to learn about the festival.
October 6–11, Rhinebeck, New York, US
I’m back for a week at Omega (just two hours north of NYC) for a week of reflection on poetry, poetry prompts, and group discussions. Expect lovely people, gorgeous surroundings and food, and conversations about how poetry opens your world. Learn more here.
I was hiking at dusk on a trail in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the nearly full moon already beginning to rise. No one else was hiking in the area at the time, the quiet space between day and night. I was making my way around a butte, watching the trail. I came around a “corner”, lifted my head, and took in my breath as I came upon a beautiful mule deer doe. She was as surprised to see me as I was to see her, and we both stopped, our gazes locked for a moment, before she bounded off. It is an amazing experience to connect, even for a moment, with another living being in a beautiful place.
I had a close group of friends for a long time (decades) and after I came out, I never saw or spoke to any of them again despite living in a small town, it's surprising to me that I have never bumped into any of them in this twenty or so years that have followed. Sometimes I'll hear of someone meeting 'such and such' or 'so and so' and I experience these empty and uncomfortable feelings I might have in such a meeting vicariously. It's a lot, being seen and becoming invisible at the same time.