What does it mean to be a poet writing out of a spiritual tradition in a society where such traditions are often contested or even rejected? Yet the connection between poetry and a world that offers more than just what we physically see is an ancient one that has produced some of the world’s finest poetry. 

John. F. Deane, James Harpur and Hilary Davies, three poets whose careers as writers have been devoted to exploring these relationships, will come together to read a selection of their poems and to speak about how their spiritual journeys have shaped their work; their sources of inspiration; and why poetry of the spirit has always mattered and continues to matter today.

John F. Deane was born on Achill Island off the coast of Mayo. He is the founder and first director of Poetry Ireland, the Irish National Poetry Society, and of its journal Poetry Ireland Review. He has published a number of poetry collections with Carcanet Press, the latest being Jonah and Me, a Poetry Society recommendation which featured in a ‘best recent poetry’ review in The Guardian. Recent collections in Polish and in Norwegian have been published. He is a member of Aosdana, the Irish Arts Academy.

James Harpur has been described as ‘one of the finest poets writing in Ireland’ (Dublin Review of Books) and has published ten books of poetry with Anvil Press, Carcanet and Two Rivers Press. He has won numerous awards and prizes, including the 1995 National Poetry Prize, an Eric Gregory Award, the Vincent Buckley Award, and the Michael Hartnett Award. He is also a prize-winning novelist, with his debut book, The Pathless Country, winning the JG Farrell Award and being shortlisted for the John McGahern Prize.

Hilary Davies is a poet, essayist and translator. Her fifth collection, Compass Light, published by Renard Press in 2025, has been described by Rowan Williams as ‘moving, subtle but accessible, beautifully vivid'. She is a former Chairman of the Poetry Society, Eric Gregory award winner and Hawthornden Fellow. She has been an RLF Fellow at King’s College London and the British Library, and is a Fellow of the English Association and the Temenos Academy. In 2023 she was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year award.

Venue & Admission

18 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3ED

£10 General Admission

FREE for Temenos Academy Members/Full-time students with ID card

Image Credit - Thomas Denny, detail from Hereford Cathedral, the Thomas Traherne Windows