Arrangements: Poetic & Public Rituals of Grief & Joy With Amanda Meeks & TC Tolbert

Poet Ed Roberson says, “and so much lost      you’d think / beauty had left a lesson” and Marie Howe says, “​​All art holds the knowledge that we're both living and dying at the same time.”  We are taking these lines as an invitation to attend to it all. Please join End of Life Doula and Zine artist, Amanda Meeks, and Tucson’s Poet Laureate, TC Tolbert, as we poetically explore grief and some of its other living companions: love, contemplation, silence, beauty, creation, and joy. The workshop will include a variety of arrangements and invitations to make and be made: generative writing prompts, full sensory and playful engagements, reading and reflection, and beginning the guided process of creating ephemeral arrangements and installations across Tucson.

Part 1/Workshop:

While free, please note that this is a two-day commitment. Please register here. Part 1, the workshop, will be capped at 25 participants. Part 2, the public reading, will be on May 6, 2023. Participants will have two weeks to create, complete, and document their arrangements and installations. Let’s live while we are dying and listen for the lessons of beauty everywhere.

Part 2/Reading: 

Participants from Arrangements: Poetic and Public Rituals of Grief and Joy were invited to play, write, reflect, and create ephemeral arrangements and installations across Tucson. Please join us in witnessing their arrangements at this community reading and display.

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The Poetry Coalition, an alliance of more than 25 independent poetry organizations across the United States, will devote March through May 2023 to exploring the theme “and so much lost      you’d think / beauty had left a lesson: Poetry & Grief" in a series of virtual and in-person programs. 

The line “and so much lost      you’d think / beauty had left a lesson” is from Ed Roberson's poem "once the magnolia has blossomed." 

Poetry Coalition members aim to demonstrate how poetry can invite and inspire conversations in their communities about grief—an expansive and rich topic that has become imbued with deeper meaning over the last few years.