2024
Program
Lani O’ Hanlon
"The Mystery of the Body"
'the poem has to do with some things I saw, felt and was part of'
David Jones
Lani will share some embodied techniques she has developed to access sensual memory to create poetry, story and memoir in a more effortless, wild and playful way.
About Lani O'Hanlon
Lani O’ Hanlon is a writer and movement artist with Waterford Healing Arts Trust. She is the winner of the Poetry Ireland/ Trocaire Competition 2022, The Bloomsday Poetry Film, Irish Selection, 2024 with Director Fiona Aryan and she was selected for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions in 2020. Her poetry collection Landscape of the Body was published in November 2023 by The Dedalus Press. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and is a Hennessey Prize-winner for the short story. Lani was awarded an Agility Award from The National Arts Council in 2022 and as a poet working in Arts and Health – palliative care and mental health, the Arts Participatory Project Award for a poetry collection on bereavement in 2023.
Lani’s writing is regularly broadcast on RTE’s Sunday Miscellany, widely anthologised and featured in various publications including: Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry, Poetry Wales, Portland Review, The Irish Times, Southword, The Stinging Fly, The Moth, The Waxed Lemon, Orbis, Channel, 14 and Mslexia.
Reviews;
Gradually the collection reveals itself as an interweaving of the rhythms of music, of Earth, and of the body. As we fall further under the spell of Lani’s incantations, we are brought into the living core of ritual, that precious place where the heart opens and we feel a great gratitude for living. Grace Wells The first, deeply personal poems comprise, almost, a childhood memoir. They portray a tumultuous childhood, where dance was a way to pay the milk bill. Others, exploring love, loss, and friendship, examine the lives of women who are damaged or dispossessed. A viscerally powerful collection that took my breath away.
Sue Leonard, The Examiner
Colour and significant objects are vital as rhythm to this child of performers…’Half-asleep in the auditorium/I’d watch them onstage/all sequined up. Far away…’ A palm reading becomes a coda for the whole collection ‘A gypsy/takes my hand, reads future,/tracing lines and routes away from/and back again to family.
Martina Evans, The Irish Times.
Shelley Tracey, PTP
"Letting go of certainty and opening the door to mystery"
We live in challenging times. While logical thinking and reason can help us to make sense of the world, the desire for certainty and perfection can also limit our potential. In the nineteenth century, the poet John Keats proposed ‘Negative Capability’ as a characteristic of creative people, ‘that is, when a person is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.’ The artist Richard Pousette-Dart believed that ‘every living work of art, or thing of beauty’ can help to connect us with the unknowable and the mystical in the universe. In this workshop, we will explore mystery and uncertainty by responding to poems by Miroslav Holub, Naomi Shihab Nye, Billy Collins and others. Other prompts for writing will include art works and comments by artists such as Magritte, Odile Redon and Marli Thibodeau.2023
Program
Carol Boland, PTP
"The power of the mask"
Oscar Wilde said, "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth". In her poem, "Chemise", Kay Ryan says, "What would the self disrobed look like, his form undrapped?".
In this session, Carol will consider our relationships with poetry as mask, the advantages and disadvantages and whether they help or hinder our authentic self.
[Website]
Anne F. O'Reilly
"Poetry, permeability and spaciousness"
Anne F. O'Reilly, PhD is a Dublin based poet, writer, creative facilitator, and keynote speaker who works with poetry as doorway into imagination, creativity, mindfulness, and leadership. She has a passion for education and has worked as a teacher, lecturer and workshop leader for many years both in Ireland and the USA.
She is the author of the book Sacred Play: Soul-Journeys In Contemporary Irish Theatre; a print collection of poetry with artist Caz Hunter, Singing From the Belly of the Whale and a CD collection of her poetry, Breathson with musician Wayne P. Sheehy.
[Website]
Kirsty Orr
"Sing to connect"
Kirsty Orr is a Natural Voice advocate, and believes firmly in the power of singing to connect and empower, inspire and settle. In a short "sing to connect" session she will lead a body awakening and teach a short song that can go into our self-soothe toolkits.
[Website]
Jill Teague, PTP
"The peace of wild things"
During this workshop, we will explore how Nature can be a salve and a solace. Using words and visual imagery, we will look at our personal relationship with the natural world and the confort we find there.
[Website]
David Madden, PTP
"Living life on life's terms - finding peace through self-reflection"
Join us for a transformative journey towards inner peace and self-discovery through the art of self-reflection and creative expression. In this workshop we are invited to engage in a series of guided activities and writing exercises designed to explore our thoughts, emotions, and experiences, to integrate some of our life challenges, find acceptance, and move closer to a sense of tranquility. All you need is pen and paper, and. curious mind.
[Website]
2022
Program
2021
Program
2020
Program
2015
4th Annual Convention
Rhythm of Life
2014
3rd Annual Convention
Well-being Through Poetry: Journey to the Heart of the Matter.
Program
- Carol Boland, PTP
"We'll laugh about this someday" - Theresa Kelly, PTP
"Journeying with the Life of Pi (film)" - Michael Murphy (Key Speaker)
Michael Murphy is a psychoanalyst with a busy practice in Sandyford, Dublin. He is also an award winning senior television producer / director and newscaster with RTE. He has lectured in psychoanalysis at St.Vincent’s University Hospital and University College,Dublin.
In 1990 he wrote Reading the Poems for Desmond Egan – the Poet and his Work, edited by Professor Hugh Kenner. In 1998 he wrote a book-length study, The Road to the World, a Lacanian analysis of Desmond Egan’s collection, A Song for My Father.
Michael’s number one best-selling literary memoir At Five in the Afternoon was published in September 2009. His sequel The House of Pure Being was published in September 2013, and his first poetry collection The Republic of Love was published in May 2013. - Cara Nusinov
Laughter Workshop - Ger Campbell, PTP
"Reflecting upon our heatfelt needs" - Book Launch: The Backwards Book - Poetry Therapy from Practice to Theory by Dr. Niall Hickey.
