Home»Tassajara»5/20-25/2025 Poetry Workshop with Naomi Shihab Nye and Paul Haller

I return to Tassajara after a long absence, to attend a wonderful poetry workshop. The leaders are poet Naomi Shihab Nye and Ryushin Paul Haller.

I have been a fan of Naomi’s poetry ever since I bought Fuel, her 1998 collection. I probably bought it at Tassajara! But I didn’t realize, or didn’t aspire, to the poetry workshop she leads each year. (With a pause for COVID.) This year I was finally ready. Acting slowly, I only made it to the waiting list.

Then, my life was upended, my son Jameson died suddenly by accident. When Tassajara told me I made it off the waiting list, our memorial event for Jameson was scheduled for a week after the workshop. With Helen’s support, I accepted this offering from the universe, took a break from the rest of my life, and spent the week with poetry and Zen. I’m glad I did.

The first gallery here is an overview: the flow of the whole week, from arrival through workshop.

“Tassajara Zen Mountain Center” has a few photos from around the retreat complex. None of the Zendo or meditators, at their request.

“Tassajara Creek” runs through the complex, and to cool natural retreats downstream and up.

“Light and Water” features impressionistic closeups of the creek’s water, with poetic meditations.

“Flowers, Insects, and Lizard” and “Peaks” cover the same ground: the former, up close; the latter, landscape views. “Peaks” also narrates the approach to Tassajara, coming down Stage Road, with distant views of valleys and perhaps an ocean.

“Poetry Workshop”: from within our seminar room.

Befitting the theme of the workshop, I have taken the liberty to add my poems to the descriptions of several of these galleries. I hope to be able to merge my photography with poetry – here is my first attempt. When I walk in natural settings with a camera, my first instinct is to look for an important image – or at least an interesting subject for documentation. Poetry comes later and with somewhat more difficulty. It may become more natural to me, with practice.