Poet, Scholar, Teacher, Spiritual Guide
Trained as an academic, Kathy has read and studied poetry for most of her life, writing and editing two scholarly books and many articles on the work of the British poet and artist David Jones. She began writing poetry herself at midlife and has found that the poetry has become a spiritual practice of holy attention, enabling her to dwell deeply in the richness and challenges of life, loss, relationships and transitions. Her retreat work and teaching focus on connections between poetry, creativity and the spiritual life, while her many years of training and experience in the art of spiritual direction inform her one-on-one work accompanying people on their faith journeys.
Recently released from Wipf and Stock publishers
VIRIDITAS: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS is now available! —
Drawing on the spirituality of St. Hildegard of Bingen, these poems tap into the energy of green-ness (viriditas) as it pulses through nature and through the times of loss, disorientation and fresh hope that we encounter in our lives. Sinking into the experience of sacred place, they lead us into woodlands and ocean beaches, local gardens and distant places of pilgrimage. Through celebration and elegy, biblical story and the natural world, these poems invite readers to experiences of meditation and even prayer, embracing all that is green and growing in our lives.
—Kathleen Staudt’s Viriditas is a joyous tribute to nature, green in shoot and bough. In the tradition of Mary Oliver, her poems revel in the seasons closely observed, from the colors and shapes of leaves to the subtle hues of love. Like a wise bee, Staudt confects the honey of contemplation from all the changes and chances of this life. —Barbara Newman, Northwestern University
—Kathleen Staudt’s Viriditas is a ribbon of bright light, a gift that invites us to celebrate with her the greening energy of the sacred in poems that open to us like seeds in a soft spring rain. Her poems are an invitation to discover anew how the experiences of being human can daily point us toward the miracles to be found in each moment. “Breathing in. Breathing out.” —Michael Glaser, Maryland Poet Laureate 2004-2009
You can order directly from the publisher Wipf and Stock, or visit my author page on amazon for access to this and other books of mine, including the kindle version of this one. Watch my events tab for updates on book launches, interviews etc. If you’d like me to send you a signed copy, please message me through the contacts tab of this website and we can work that out.
Poem of the Season
Unknowing
A few weeks from now we will move from here
To the new place we have chosen.
I will leave this patio, grey stone, red brick and green
Today I do not know what I will know soon
How much this house will sell for; when moving day will be
Who will live here next
I wonder how my morning solitary times will be
As we learn to live in our new place
Years ago, climbing Mount Olympia
We found ourselves surrounded
In thick fog. All that we could see
Was the path under our feet
And so we took the next step, and the next, hoping
That through the clouds, we’d come
To a sunlit view: white mountains, blue valleys
Wildflowers blooming purple pink.
But we could not know what we would see
Coming to that high place.
I lost my companions for awhile, as the fog dropped.
They kept on striding, intent on the summit
But I slowed down
My steps took me only as far ahead as I could see.
Slowing, my mist-filled eyes began to see
What I might have missed, going faster:
By the side of the path, intense blue of mountain aster
Fire of devil’s paintbrush
And tiny grey-green lichens, hanging on.
And so I pause now, at my fifty-ninth year
With mist-filled eyes
To gaze at where I am: grey stone, brick wall
The pink geranium where the hummingbirds have come
Chrysanthemums, burnt orange, on the patio wall
And the surrounding green that has been my home.
Not knowing what the move will make of me
When I come to our new place.
(from Good Places (2017)