an exploration of Wayfaring, ancient and modern
Welcome to The Poet’s Dreamingbody — a place for exploring a particular “formula” for creative and spiritual practice that was passed on to me by my late teacher, Darion Kuma Gracen (1949-2007), a Dōjin, or Wayfarer, who combined an interdisciplinary approach to meditation, mountains-and-forests hillwalking (what some moderns now call shinrin-yoku [forest bathing], the study of the poetics of sages and Wayfarers of old, and a numinous, animistic relationship with Great Nature.
Other than the occasional post of my own poetry, and various quotes and pith phrases for contemplation, transmissions of The Poet’s Dreamingbody involve a monthly podcast reflecting upon the lives and verses of various Wayfaring poets, who — as a lineage-stream of “art mothers and fathers”
— offer us inspiration and “practice-hints” for the paths we walk. Readers and listeners will be introduced to a variety of themes and topics that are embedded within the Wayfaring tradition of contemplative living and poetics.If you ever have any questions or suggestions you would like to throw my way, topics you would like to share or see explored, etc., I would love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out to me at: hiddenmountainstudio@gmail.com
Frank Inzan Owen
Frank Inzan Owen, M.A. is a Wayfarer of a Nature-oriented contemplative and creative path that draws inspiration from an East Asian tradition of scholar-warriors, artist-intellectuals, mountain priests, and forest-wandering poets that exerts a strong influence upon his spirituality and evolving creative life. In addition to mountains, forests, rivers, and the teachings embedded within the four seasons, his poetry draws inspiration from dreams, and the Jungian psychodynamic understanding of the soul.
Frank is the author of three books of poetry, all on Homebound Publications, The School of Soft-Attention, The Temple of Warm Harmony, and Stirrup of the Sun & Moon. He resides in the north-central Georgia Piedmont ("foot of the mountain"), near the Chattahoochee River, in the ancestral territory of the Aniyunwiya (Cherokee). When not hillwalking or organic gardening, he facilitates a form of life-path exploration, spiritual companioning, creative mentoring, and innerwork he calls contemplative soulwork.
I first encountered the concept of “art mothers and fathers” from dancer and teacher Barbara Dilley, author of This Very Moment: Teaching, Thinking, Dancing. Similar to the notion of one’s “milk-line” (those whom we are not related to by bloodline but who have nourished our spiritual lives in some way), the “lineage stream of art mothers and fathers” is anyone part of your creative-spiritual lineage who has shaped your life as an artist.
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