What are we?

Poesis will be an intergenerational community space which invites people to gather and explore what is means to be human at this time of profound planetary change.

As humans, we have a need to be connected; to ourselves, to each other and to the wider natural world; a need to feel whole and for our lives to make sense and have meaning.

It will be a place which provides space to reflect, contemplate, connect, cultivate, be curious, imagine, innovate, heal, as well as develop radical ideas for cultural and societal change.

It intends to provide a home for those searching to make sense of our current reality and wanting to make a difference through their own lives.

It will do this through a combination of activities and practices, supporting us to share collective experiences, collaborate, deepen insight and to be part of a healthy living culture.

This is all in service of contributing to the paradigm shift needed in the world, recognising that we are all deeply interconnected and part of the web of life along with the more-than-human world.

Poesis is an emerging project, it will develop over time with the involvement of those connected to it.

Why is Poesis needed?

Modern life is grounded in separation and rationalisation. We believe we can understand the whole by understanding the parts and that only logic has value.

Our society is now deeply based around individualism, not recognising our innate deep interdependencies. Our modern view of reality is strongly based in industrialisation, seeing living systems through the prism of a mechanical metaphor.

However, we are gradually awakening to the realisation that this way of living has consequences, that have not been costed into our understanding of how we live life.

Globally we are facing many interconnecting crises and societally we are increasingly living with loneliness, a sense of emptiness, lack of meaning, mental health issues, burnout and addictions of all types, including technology. We have been living a false story of progress, and for many there is a deep feeling of dissonance with this world we have created.

But modernity has brought many great advances also, so how do we discern what we want to keep and what needs to evolve? Poesis will help us explore this.

Poesis is about…

…both the wider society we live in and our inner life

… both how/who we want to be and what we want to do

… both the human and more-than-human world

… Relationships, connections and wholeness

… supporting both healing and agency

… creating a space in which to flourish and thrive

… sensemaking and meaning making in service of wisdom

… our embodied experiences not just our cognitive thoughts

… our deeper awakening to our planetary predicament and honouring that reality

… hand, heart and soul, as well as systems and society

… creating a space of joy that also allows for grief

… both mitigation the world’s predicaments, and adaptation to the world as it is and the planetary changes that are to come.

… a place that can allow for emergence of what is needed

… a ‘re-growing of a living culture’ in the words of Doughald Hine

Pre-assumption

Poesis has a starting point that humanity is entering a period of unprecedented transformation whether we’re shaping it or merely responding.

We don’t find helpful either the imagined futures of great doom or techno-optimism, and are choosing to provide a space where we can explore the path in between these two positions.

We believe we have agency at a local level and seek to support that.