Poetry Tables: How to Create Profound Experiences of Courage, Connection, and Community Using Poetry

Poetry Tables is not a poetry book, but is about a process that uses poetry as a catalyst to create profound experiences of courage, connection, and community.

As the name implies, during a Poetry Table you sit at a table. On the table are a stack of 80-90 poems. You sit in a small group of three to five people. You take poems from the stack and read them in silence at your own pace for 10-12 minutes. As you read, you set aside poems that you like. Afterwards, you choose one and read it out aloud to your small group and speak about why it matters to you. It is a surprising, intimate, and revealing experience.

The book shares profound personal stories from past Poetry Tables and explains how to design Poetry Tables, which are highly adaptable to any context, audience, and outcomes. Thus, the book is targeted at facilitators, trainers, therapists, and teachers, who are open to learning a novel way of opening up individuals and groups, and connecting people. The intention is for interested educators, change agents, and interventionists to understand the process, be intrigued enough to want to try it for their team or class, and then either want to sponsor a Poetry Table or facilitate one themselves.