1. Poets of Embodied Wisdom

A series of 6 lunchtime drop in sessions - do 1, do all 6!

‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’

Mary Oliver

Welcome to the Focusers Guide to the Galaxy

This Galaxy guide offers an overarching theme, an exciting new initiative, to explore the great poets, philosophers, writers and leaders and the such like bringing their messages vividly alive through the lens of focusing.

We start with Poets of Embodied Wisdom

The Experience

Enjoy, share and connect in community as we bring alive the Poets transformative core meaning, captured by the felt sense, and what it might mean to us in shaping our lives.

Conducted in a playful, explorative and open way where breakout groups, plenaries, guided reflections, and pausing to absorb our experience in a focusing context. 

Who is Welcome? 

Not just for poets!   Focusing practitioners at all levels, activists, change-makers, and anyone seeking make meaning and expand into the fresh edge of life. Bring your questions, your struggles, and your longing for a better world.

When?

26 November. 3, 10, 17 December 2025. 7, 14 January 2026
Time: 12.15pm - 1pm GMT (Lunchtime sessions) 

Attend one, attend all - your choice!

Focusers Guide to the Galaxy: Poets of Embodied Wisdom Program

Core Themes We'll Explore

• Appreciating the deeper significance of the poets through the felt sense in community
• The power of the written word, metaphor and symbol on the felt-sense.
• Presence and the felt sense was a means for resilience and healing
• How the animal nature of our senses offers a portal to flow and liberation
• Building community through a mutual sensitivity and appreciation of meaning and significance
• How entertaining not knowing can be a powerful ally in growth
• Exploring the emergence of the fresh edge in the transformation process.

Wednesday 26 November 

Maya Angelou: Still I Rise - Resilience in the Body Angelou's poetry embodies survival, dignity, and unbreakable spirit despite trauma. We'll explore how her work teaches us to find strength and beauty in our scars.  (COMPLETED)

Wednesday 3 December

Mary Oliver: Attention to the Wild Within "You do not have to be good" - Oliver's poetry returns us to our animal nature and original belonging. We'll explore how her attention to the natural world awakens our own wildness. (COMPLETED)

Wednesday 10 December

Jane Hirshfield: The Moment When Everything Changes  Hirshfield writes about the precise instant when perception shifts and new understanding dawns. We'll explore these threshold moments when the felt sense invites a fresh edge shift. (COMPLETED)

Wednesday 7 January

Rilke's Letters: Living the Questions "Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer." We'll practice Rilke's patience with not-knowing and unfolding.

COMPLETED

14 January
Sufi-mystic Poet - Hafiz.  Hafiz is a master of metaphor, symbol and meaning, come and bathe together in the rich tastes of freedom, love and joy 

COMPLETED

NEXT UP.....FROM MISSED SESSION 21 JANUARY NOW: 

Wednesday 28 January 2026

Rumi's Longing: The Guest House Practice "Welcome and entertain them all! "   Rumi's most famous poem is essentially a Focusing instruction. We'll practice his teaching that every feeling is a messenger deserving hospitality, and compassionate presence.

Session Format

• Opening connection and centering attunement
• Open explorative plenaries
• Exploring the core teachings through the felt sense
• Paired practice and small group dialogue
• Exploring and savoring the depth relevance and meaning 
• Integration - How does this wisdom live in my life today?

Contribution and Sustainable based Pricing

(See 'Buy ticket' for actual costs, make sure you scroll all the way down).

These sessions require significant preparation, facilitation, and follow-through. Pay what feels true for your circumstances, honouring both your financial means whilst valuing this creation. Your honest self-assessment—supported by those who can contribute more—keeps this work available to all. I am of course delighted to receive what you give. My dog, Skye, and cat, Miss Pippin, will also wag their tails.

• Any Session: General Admission                     £15.00
• Any Session: Concession                                  £12.50
• Super-save on All 6 Sessions                           £60.00
• Per Session Financially Strapped                    £6.00
• Per Session Beyond Financially Strapped:     By Donation

(See 'Buy ticket' for actual costs, make sure you scroll all the way down).

On the horizon, the next Focusers Guides to the Universe;

Focusers Guide to the Galaxy 2. The Great Philosophers

Focusers Guide to the Galaxy 3. Indigenous Wisdom Carriers

Reality NVC: Revolutionary Thinkers

And you might be interested in the following Focusing and NVC events:

Focusing Skills Training and Events       Nonviolent Communication         

Embodied Empathic Presence Trilogy for Restorative Wellbeing & Community - 3 Residentials @ Braziers Park.

Meet Simon 'K2' McKibbin

Presence Guide, Mentor, Friend and Coach.

We are living in unprecedented times—both thrilling and unsettling with forces beyond our control at play on financial, global, environmental, and social levels. The lack of meaning in materialism has left our culture's social fabric empty, sowing confusion in our identities and a sense of lostness about what it means to feel secure, grounded in the natural order, and truly connected to others and the awe and mystery of the universe.

We live in a culture of atomization where technology promises connection yet alienates us further—moving from Cartesian "I am" to Apple "I-Phone," faces frozen and hypnotized by screens. The proliferation of information competes for our attention—it's hard to draw breath and sense our true identity as sovereign beings.

And yet... in every moment, the sun rises and stars offer their soft light. The ground remains ever faithful, lovingly supporting us. Birds continue to sing, trees remain rooted, oceans stay deep, and there is richness and beauty in every precious, tingling, vibrant moment. A silky breath slides into our bodies from the skies as the universe continues breathing through us, perfuming every cell with vibrancy and warmth. We are here now, alive—coming home to ourselves is the prayer of every star, every mote of dust. Something deep within knows how to return to its authentic original self—like a hidden gem stitched into a garment's lining, we had it all the time. Embodied Relational Presence offers a portal to true self-empowerment where we realize we are not foam buffeted by waves, but the ocean itself.

For over 34 years, I've supported individuals and communities toward greater personal and professional empowerment through Mindfulness, Nonviolent Communication, and Focusing—practices that unlock our capacity to live more fully, creatively, and courageously. My work bridges inner transformation with outer change, rooted in active commitment to ecological regeneration, social equity, and nonviolent living through grassroots organising and co-creation. I invite you into this portal of Embodied Relational Presence—where there is autonomous, sovereign, connected, and irrepressible life—to become both magician of your own wholeness and powerful ally for planetary regeneration and collective wellbeing.

Experience: CNVC Certified NVC Trainer | BFA Focusing Teacher | Breathworks Mindfulness Teacher | Associate Mindfulness Teacher, University of Cambridge (2017–2023) | Extinction Rebellion consultant, mediator & trainer | Møller Institute Cambridge University Executive Coaching Guest Lecturer | Mindfulness in Schools Project (MISP) teacher | Triratna Buddhist Order member | Samaritans volunteer

Contact Simon simon@living-presence.co.uk