Poetic Tools for Religious Imagination: Winter Retreat 2023

These poems and psalms were written by Pres House students at our 2023 Winter Retreat. The theme was “Poetic Tools for Religious Imagination.” In two of our four sessions, students collaborated in small groups to write poems and psalms on various topics.

The first four poems below were written on Saturday morning. After reflecting on three broad themes — God, sin, and salvation — students broke into small groups. Each small group took one of these themes as the subject for their poem and used the entire retreat group’s thoughts about these themes as resources for their poetry.

The second four psalms were written on Saturday night. Students chose issues of injustice that were personally meaningful and, after some individual reflection, joined others who chose related issues to write psalms of lament. These psalms ask for God’s justice to address issues such as gender and sexuality, racism, and climate change.