Art and Poetry of the Garden of Eden

Facilitated by Matt Gesicki on Zoom

Join us for a contemplative experience of the monastic practice of lectio divina applied to classical art and contemporary poetry, on the theme of the Garden of Eden in Genesis. In 2020, American poet Louise Glück received the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” Poems for this program will be selected from Glück’s collection The Wild Iris, in which a trio of voices—the voice of God the distant Creator, the voice of a human gardener, and the collective voices of the flowers tilled by the gardener—join to offer a testimony on faith, suffering, creation, and resurrection. Images from William Blake’s illustrations for Paradise Lost will also be included.

Classical art and contemporary American poetry inspired by the theological themes of the beginning of Genesis will provide material for a contemplative experience of faith, suffering, creation, and resurrection.

$20 

Matt Gesicki is currently the Community Outreach and Education Coordinator with NAMI Greater Cleveland. He earned a Master of Divinity in Psychology and Religion from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He lives in Lakewood, Ohio.