Asynchronous Workshop: “Poem as Prayer” with Elana Bell
Poetry asks of us a deep presence, both in reading and in writing. It invites us into a kind of attentiveness that can hold gratitude and praise, even alongside grief and longing. Our poems may offer visions of the world as it could be, or they may cry out in response to what is. In all these forms, poetry becomes a way of engaging the sacred within the present moment.
What does it look like to begin exactly where we are—in this moment, however fractured or uncertain—and to write from that place? What happens when we turn our attention outward, documenting what we witness and feel? Can our noticing become a form of prayer?
In this workshop, we will begin by grounding ourselves in breath and awareness, allowing that connection to guide our writing. We will read and reflect on poems by Yehuda Amichai, Mary Oliver, Rilke, and others whose work praises the world in its complexity. From there, we will explore our own practice of writing in praise of this difficult, beautiful world.
Workshop Costs
Purchase the asynchronous workshop here to receive:
- One recorded class
- Link to poems discussed in class
$24—standard registration
$20—discounted registration for Yetzirah Members (you can become a member here)
*As we want our offerings to be accessible to all, there is a pay-what-you-can option if this pricing is a hardship. Please contact Kyra Lisse at klisse@yetzirahpoets.org for a sliding scale option.
About Elana
Elana Bell is a poet and interdisciplinary artist whose work explores identity, longing, and the intimate intersections of personal and political life. She is the author of two poetry collections, Mother Country (BOA Editions, 2020) and Eyes, Stones (LSU Press, 2012), selected by Fanny Howe as the winner of the Walt Whitman First Book Award from the Academy of American Poets. Her poems have appeared widely in journals including AGNI, Prairie Schooner, The Harvard Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Southern Review, The Adroit Journal, and Barrow Street, and in anthologies such as Before There Is Nowhere to Stand: Israel/Palestine Poets Respond to the Struggle.
Bell holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and has received fellowships and residencies from the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Edward Albee Foundation. She was also a finalist for Split This Rock’s inaugural Freedom Plow Award for poets working at the intersection of poetry and social justice.
In addition to her writing, Bell teaches poetry at the Juilliard School and previously served as poetry editor for the Jewish Journal.
