Good poetry dips down into the sorrow areas of the soul, just as the great stories do. The listener often finds his or her most puzzling failure or limitation evoked in the opening words. They are then offered, through images and metaphor, some way through. They are even offered a way to rejoice in their failure, just as great stories and great psychotherapy sometimes do. In this one-day workshop, Robert Bly will tell two or three classic stories, as well as some poems by Rilke, Yeats, and others. Participants of this program will have the extraordinary opportunity to learn from one of the most influential poets in North America about the poetic imagination and how poetry and stories can and do heal the soul.

Led by: Robert Bly Robert Bly is the author of many books of poetry, including The Light Around the Body, which won the National Book Award, What Have I Ever Lost by Dying?: Collected Prose, Poems and Meditations on the Insatiable Soul, and Eating the Honey of Words. Bly also authored Iron John: A Book About Men and The Sibling Society and co-authored The Maiden King: The Reunion of Masculine and Feminine in collaboration with Marion Woodman. In addition to his own poetry, Bly has edited several poetry collections including: The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, an anthology of poems from the men's work co-edited with James Hillman and Michael Meade; The Darkness Around Us Is Deep: Selected Poems of William Stafford, and The Soul Is Here for Its Own Joy, a collection of sacred poetry from many cultures.