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WRITING THE BROKEN HEART
Six weeks of poetic companioning and journaling through grief 
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Class description 

"I write out of hurt and how to make hurt okay; how to make myself strong and come home, and it may be the only real home I'll ever have.” ~ Natalie Goldberg

Writing the Broken Heart, 6 weeks of companioning your grief through poetry, runs from 3:30 to 5 p.m. EST Tuesdays, starting January 20 and ending on February 24. Sessions will be held via Zoom. Each session will include a grounding embodiment practice, teachings about grief and a selection of poems with invitations to write in response to the poems through guided prompts exploring the many dimensions of your grief. We'll look at making a welcome space for our grief, offering ourselves compassion, tending our relationship to grief, how grief speaks through our bodies and continuing bonds with our beloved dead. While this class is for anyone experiencing a significant loss or change, not just the death of a loved one, there will be one session dedicated to honoring our beloveds who are no longer with us. Classes will not be recorded but an aftercare packet with the poems and prompts will be shared after each class. Self-investment is $175 and payable via Venmo @Naila-Francis or Zelle or PayPal using naila.francis@gmail.com. (A $150 sliding scale option is available for those who need it).  If you need a different option to pay, please email me at the address below. Zoom link will be sent prior to the first session. 

You do not have to write poetry or be a poet to take this series. The poems are meant to be a reflective opening into truth ... into tenderness ... into care and warmth ... into flowing where you've felt stuck ... ripening where you've held back from free expression ... into what the body holds and the heart knows, beyond the protective armoring you've learned to wear in a culture that doesn't allow space for our grief. Doesn't honor its many moods, emotions, images, dreams and impulses. You do not have to show up in any particular way in this space. Your grief, whatever you carry and however it manifests from week to week, is welcome here. 

Questions? Email naila@thishallowedwilderness.com 
Name and Pronouns

Email address
Do you need any accommodations (like closed captioning, etc.) or have any other access needs for this class? (This could include things like not always being able to keep your camera on because you suffer from migraines, etc., needing to get up and move your body, arriving from work so needing to eat dinner during class, etc.)

Please share anything you'd like me to know about who/what you are grieving and what navigating your grief has been like for you thus far. 

from ancestor poet Andrea Gibson: '

A difficult life is not less
worth living than a gentle one.
Joy is simply easier to carry
than sorrow. And your heart
could lift a city from how long
you’ve spent holding what’s been
nearly impossible to hold.


This world needs those
who know how to do that.
Those who could find a tunnel
that has no light at the end of it,
and hold it up like a telescope
to know the darkness
also contains truths that could
bring the light to its knees.


Grief astronomer, adjust the lens,
look close, tell us what you see.

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