Registration for this course has ended
From Absence to Fullness: A Guided Group Meditation Through the Poetry of T.S. Eliot
with Eugene K. Garber and Evan Craig Reardon.
Join us on a spiritual journey through a close reading of Eliot’s poems. This is not a lecture-driven group, but a discussion-based one. We will read and respond to the poems, and then listen to and respond to each other. Mutual commitment and the beauty of the Cathedral will be the medium for exploring the poems and for our personal growth.
In the tradition of spiritual journey found in the Gospels and in the writings of mystics, we will move from darkness to light by beginning with “The Hollow Men”, “Ash-Wednesday”, and “Choruses from ‘The Rock’” before we enter into Eliot’s highest achievement of spiritual realization, the “Four Quartets.”
We welcome seekers of any faith, as well as those still seeking a basis for spiritual commitment. Our goal is to discover new ways for thinking about the role of the spiritual in life, and for realizing our vision as we move deeper into it.
Saturday mornings at the Cathedral, October 2019 through May 2020: 10/19, 11/9, 12/14, 1/11, 2/8, 3/14, 4/11, 5/9. Cost for eight weeks is $200- ($150- for students).
Please send a brief written statement of interest telling us what your hopes are for joining the group, whether or not you have any background in this type of project, and anything else you wish to share.
Send statements to the Director of Cathedral Arts, Brynna Carpenter-Nardone, at The Cathedral of All Saints, 62 South Swan Street, Albany, N.Y. 12210. If you have questions about the course content, you can email Gene.
Eugene K. Garber is a retired English Professor from The University at Albany, where he taught modern literature and writing. He has published six books of fiction. He collaborated with eight other artists to create Eroica, a hypermedia fiction for web. At the Cathedral of All Saints he has served for two decades as project director for capital improvements. He has also led congregants in a discussion group reading Marilynne Robinson’s novel, Lila. Currently he is actively participating in Cathedral Arts, a program of spiritual enrichment through arts in various media at various venues. Recently he participated in a symposium on The Albany Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, focusing his remarks on Britten’s use of the poetry of Wilfred Owen.
Evan Craig Reardon is a graduate student at SUNY Albany, where he is pursuing a MS in Library Science and an MA in English. He graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2017 where he studied philosophy, English, and classical languages. He is an experimental poet working at the intersection of poetry, philosophy, and theology. His current project is a free translation and adaptation of Euripides’ Medea with a theological commentary.
THE POEMS