Artist's Self-Introduction

Joe Wrobel reading poems at a microphone at a desk, papers in hand

I wrote most of these poems from 1980 to 2000 while a participant in the human development seminars of Dr. Jean Houston, particularly the “Mystery School” series. Most are tributes to over 50 other participants, reflecting and celebrating their efforts to grow in the depth and complexity of their consciousness, then to bring the results into the world. So the poems are often invitations or challenges to them to continue to dare and transcend.

They embody the approach of the seminars, the “via activa” - overloading one’s habitual conceptual systems with energy that drives awareness to higher levels of inclusion, diversity, and integration, especially on mythic levels.

So their tone is often both yearning and pushy. Sometimes they become mini-sermons like the poems of Rumi and John Donne. And often bombastic, like Shelley or Dylan Thomas. What might be less evident is my attraction to the ironic distance of modern poets like Auden and T.S. Eliot. And my awe for Rilke and Neruda, even in translation.

Readers may be interested in contrasting them to the more contemplative and grateful tone of my more recent poems, such as "All River," "Elementals," "Drummers and Dancers," and "Birthday Sixty -Eight."

Joe Wrobel and Mekare preparing/improvising
before a performance of Rumi poetry