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Seeking the Sacred
When we grow still and pay attention, we make space for the sacred. By that I mean we make room to recognize, appreciate, and participate in that which we most value. Maybe it’s hiking, gardening, observing nature, studying religious texts, meditating, poetry, learning, cooking, arranging dishes in your dishwasher just so, poetry, screen-free time, quiet time before bed, viewing art, reading, poetry, traveling, keeping in touch with friends, keeping pets, moving 10,000 steps per day, poetry, philanthropy, journaling, praying, leaning into chaos, laughing, healing, working out, poetry, spending quality time with family, or something else entirely. (But probably poetry.)
As we begin the transition from summer to fall in the rhythm of blazing sun and thundering deluge, why not take time to reflect and create a list (think top 5 to 10) of what you hold sacred. Then make space for your sacred somethings.
I don’t know the secret to making space for all that’s sacred in our noisy lives, but I know it starts with a choice. And I’ve learned that small spaces matter. Ten thousand steps begin with one. One minute in nature beats none. Writing just 10 minutes a day yields 60 hours more than not writing. That’s magic. (Like poetry.)
Here are a few ways to honor your carved out space for poetry now and in the near future:
- Tennessee Voices Anthology , 2025-2026 is available! (BONUS: you’ll also find books available from our member authors when you click the link.)
- Our ROUNDUP identifies all manner of poetic happenings and opportunities.
- A new documentary on our nation’s preeminent observer, Mary Oliver, was recently released. Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World will air/stream on PBS August 25 and will be available on other streaming services and in live theaters.
- Try one of our eclectic members-only contests. In September, sponsor Janet Qually seeks an ekphrastic poem in response to her artwork:
I invite you to join us September 12 for our next monthly member meeting, during which poet Jacqueline Swift will explore the poem as sanctuary. Some writing time will be included. Afterward, we will announce monthly contest winners and share our poetry. Bring a poem or two. I hope to see there.
With awe and appreciation—
Lisa Kamolnick
President, Poetry Society of Tennessee -
September 2026 Program with Jacqueline Swift
The Sanctuary of a Page
For many writers, the page becomes a place of refuge. Writing can help us feel safe, understand ourselves, hold on to important memories, and push back against the things that try to silence or limit us.
In this workshop, we will explore the idea of the poem as sanctuary. We will talk about how refuge, ritual, and resistance may already be showing up in our writing, even when we do not realize it. We will also look at metaphor as a tool for expressing thoughts and feelings that can be difficult to explain directly.
This session will include a brief discussion and an interactive writing component.
Join Jacqui Swift in this upcoming workshop!
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Jacqui Swift is a writer, educator, and learning designer based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Sewanee and has spent more than a decade teaching English, literature, and creative writing in college and community settings. Her work is deeply interested in language as refuge, self-making, memory, and the imaginative spaces we create to survive and understand our lives. She has facilitated writing experiences for learners of many ages and has worked with the Tennessee Arts Commission to support arts education across the state. In both her writing and teaching, she is especially drawn to the moment when metaphor helps a writer discover something they understood before they had the language to name it.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented at our upcoming PST meeting, to be held September 12, 2026, from 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern / 1:00-3:00 pm Central via Zoom. Members will be provided a link a few days prior. If you are interested in learning more about PST, check out our website. If you’d like to attend our meeting as a guest, contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.
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Mary Oliver Film Coming to Nashville July 24
If poetry had a pop icon, Mary Oliver would be it. Celebrated best-selling poet, Pulitzer Prize-winner, lover of dogs and long walks in the woods, openly queer but intensely private, Oliver was America’s unlikely contemporary mystic, stalking the ponds and forests of Cape Cod
for nearly fifty years in order to open herself – and her readers – to the known and unknowable world. From a lonely childhood to literary fame, Oliver’s life was shaped by devotion to nature, paying attention, and the long journey toward learning to love and to be loved. Her poems inspire liberals and conservatives, atheists and believers, naturalists and urbanites, speaking directly to contemporary anxieties about attention, presence, and the human relationship with the natural world – issues that feel especially pressing in an era of climate crisis, digital distraction, and social fragmentation.Featuring interviews with her close friends, including John Waters, never-before-seen personal photos, notebooks, and correspondence from her archive, and recitations of her work by Stephen Colbert, Lucy Dacus, Steve Buscemi, and Oprah Winfrey, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World considers the poet’s long lifetime of work in context, capturing the uniqueness of her world and the natural beauty that inspired her.
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World opened on July 3rd at IFC Center and at Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles on July 11th before expanding to select theaters nationwide. In Tennessee, the film will run at Nashville’s Belcourt Theatre July 24-30. Get details on the film and showings: knlor.com/maryoliverfilm
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August 2026 Program with Julie Marie Wade
Old Form, New Form: The Elegant and Elastic Reprisal of the Haibun
Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), who popularized the haiku in 17th century Japan, also created a prosimetric form known as the haibun. In contemporary American poetry, the haibun is enjoying an exciting upsurge in popularity and innovation, as reflected in the work of poets like Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Tamiko Beyer, Brenda Hillman, and Maureen Seaton. This workshop will introduce writers to the haibun and several examples of its variants, including stacked, inverted, and “burning” (created by torrin a. greathouse) versions. After reading and considering multiple haibun, participants will have a chance to write and share.
This workshop is suitable for all levels of writers.
Join Julie Marie Wade in this upcoming workshop!
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Born and raised in Seattle, Julie Marie Wade completed a Master of Arts in English at Western Washington University, a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry at the University of Pittsburgh, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities with a creative nonfiction dissertation at the University of Louisville. Her most recent collections include The Mary Years (Texas Review Press, 2024), selected by Michael Martone for the 2023 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize, Fisk, By Analogy (CutBank Prose Chapbook Series, 2025), The Latest: 20 Ghazals for 2020 (Harbor Editions, 2025), co-authored with Denise Duhamel, and the memoir Other People’s Mothers (University Press of Florida, 2025). A finalist for the National Poetry Series and a winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir, Wade is Professor of English & Creative Writing at Florida International University in Miami. Her newest poetry collection, Quick Change Artist (Anhinga Press, 2025), was selected by Octavio Quintanilla for the 2023 Anhinga Prize in Poetry and received the silver medal for poetry at the 2026 Florida Book Awards.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented at our upcoming PST meeting, to be held August 8, 2026, from 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern / 1:00-3:00 pm Central via Zoom. Members will be provided a link a few days prior. If you are interested in learning more about PST, check out our website. If you’d like to attend our meeting as a guest, contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.
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PST Seeks Festival Sponsors for 70th Annual Poetry Festival
Help make our 70th festival a huge success: sponsor a poetry festival contest! How have poetry trends changed over seven decades? What kind of poetry would you like to see in our next edition of Tennessee Voices, PST’s annual anthology? As a sponsor, you can help us share work representing poetry’s diversity, tapping into past trends, member inventions (like the Dorsimbra), and the broad interests of our growing membership.
You do not need to be a member to sponsor a contest. We invite individuals and organizations to sponsor. Sponsors will be recognized on PST’s website and blog, through PST social media channels, and in the 2026-2027 edition of Tennessee Voices.
Festival contest sponsorship applications will be open through the earlier of August 4, 2026, or meeting our contest limit.
What Does a Sponsor Do?
Sponsors create their own poetry contest! As a sponsor, you choose the theme or poetic form, note poem length, specify prize award amounts, and provide any other special instructions for entrants or judges. In many cases, sponsors also judge the contest, but that is not a requirement. While we encourage variety in poetic forms and themes, PST does not accept contests or poetry centered on explicitly violent or sexual themes.
In general, individuals and businesses may sponsor one contest. However, PST will also accept memorial contest sponsorships, one per individual or group of individuals being honored.
What Does a Judge Do?
PST’s festival poetry contests are judged blind. The Festival Poetry Contest Coordinator sends entries to the judge. In accordance with contest guidelines, the judge reviews contest entries, selects winners and provides a winners list to the festival contest coordinator.
How Do I Become a Sponsor or Judge?
If you are interested in sponsoring a festival contest, you may apply online. (Select the FESTIVAL sponsorship option.)
If you are unable to judge your sponsored contest and need assistance to find a judge, or if you are unable to sponsor but wish to judge, contact us.
Questions?
Do you have questions? Reach out to poetrytennessee@gmail.com with subject line FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP.
Guidelines are also available on our website.
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Inspiring Ekphrasis in Columbia
According to Columbia Arts Council chair Warren Feld, Columbia was once a hotspot of art and entertainment in middle Tennessee that over time lost some of its appeal. He aims to reverse this decline, making it his mission to expand the arts and the number of people who enjoy artistic adventures in Columbia. Offering poets a day of ekphrasis with a workshop led by Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) member Cathy Hollister is just one of the ways he is bringing that mission to life.
Feld enjoys showing off Columbia’s cultural resources: a centerpiece is the Pryor Art Gallery at Columbia State Community College. The gallery boasts a permanent collection and exhibitions. Curator Tori Zemer is understandably proud of the gallery’s current show featuring all local artists. She has filled the gallery with paintings, sculptures, and even a few fashion accessories. The result is a peaceful space that allows viewers to enter other worlds of abstraction, portraiture, farm scenes, and children’s laughter.
Laughter was the theme of the day for the ekphrastic poetry workshop recently held at the gallery. Cathy Hollister, a society member and published poet from middle Tennessee, led a group of enthusiastic writers. Cathy provided an overview of tools that participants might use for their poems, then read several of her published ekphrastic poems. Participants considered the images and offered ideas of how to use images as inspiration. They commented on the poems, noting poetic techniques and how the image related to the work, then they turned to the art surrounding them to create their own ideas and poems. With so many works to choose from, it was an easy task. For many attendees, ekphrastic writing was a new concept. With expanding arts in the area, ekphrasis seems certain to take root in Columbia.
Why not begin your own ekphrastic adventure? Explore ekphrastic poetry, visit a Columbia arts venue, or find inspiration in an art gallery near you.
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July 2026 Program with Maria Zoccola
Mask and Muse: Persona Poetry
In Ancient Greek theater, actors wore expressive character masks made of linen and wood that covered their entire heads; these masks acted as resonance chambers to project the actors’ voices. The Latin word for this kind of mask is “persona.” In this session, we’ll explore the persona poem as mask and as muse, examining how writing in the voice of another amplifies our own. We’ll read and discuss pieces by poets such as Lucille Clifton and Shara Lessley, and then break to try the form ourselves before returning to share the resonance of the voices we’ve found with each other.
Join Maria Zoccola in this upcoming workshop!
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Maria Zoccola is a poet and writer from Memphis, Tennessee. Her work has previously appeared in The Atlantic, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, The Sewanee Review, and elsewhere, and has received a special mention for the Pushcart Prize. Her debut poetry collection, Helen of Troy, 1993 (Scribner, 2025), was a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick and was named a best book of the year by The New Yorker and NPR.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented at our upcoming PST meeting, to be held July 11, 2026, from 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern / 1:00-3:00 pm Central via Zoom. Members will be provided a link a few days prior. If you are interested in learning more about PST, check out our website. If you’d like to attend our meeting as a guest, contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.
PST News
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