The Poetry of Zen, The Zen of Poetry

Language is a strange thing. We use it all day long, confident we know what we mean. But do you know what you mean? Of course you do! But do you? The deeper you look at a word, the weirder and more mysterious it gets. Is language a tool for communication? Or is it an experience, an invitation to stand among words in a state of amazement, to let language overwhelm us, bewilder us, transform us? And what is the silence that waits on the other side of language?

Join poet/priest Norman Fischer, newly ordained poet/priests Denise Newman and Stefany Anne Golberg, and a circle of other new ordainees as we inhabit the resonance of the koan, the rhythm of silence, and the life of the written word. Far from a traditional discussion, this gathering is an invitation to see the world—and our words—exactly as they are.

Poet, translator, and interdisciplinary artist, Denise Newman explores the tension between language and reality. She is the author of five collections of poetry, including The Redesignation of Paradise (Kelsey Street Press, 2024) and the chapbook Reality Is Occurring in the Cracks in Reality (Selva Oscura, 2025). Newman has also translated major works by Inger Christensen and Naja Marie Aidt, including Baboon (PEN Translation Prize) and When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back (longlisted for the National Book Award).

Norman Fischer is a poet and Soto Zen Buddhist priest who has published more than thirty volumes of poetry and prose, including Selected Poems 1980–2013 (Chax Press) and There Was A Clattering As…(Lavender Ink). He is the founder of Everyday Zen, a community based in the San Francisco Bay area. His most recent collection of poetry is Through a Window (Roof Books, 2024).

Stefany Anne Golberg is a writer and multimedia artist. She is the author of My Morningless Mornings (Unnamed Press, 2020), and Dead People (Zero Books, 2015), a series of essay eulogies co-authored with Morgan Meis. A co-founder of Flux Factory, an arts collective in New York City, Stefany now lives in Detroit where she has created The Huckleberry Explorers Club: a museum installation of everyday encounters, a gathering space, and 1-acre public garden.