Chelan Harkin has been channeling ecstatic poetry for years and has now published two books in the past 7 months, Susceptible to Light and Let Us Dance!: The Stumble and Whirl With The Beloved. Her publishing journey has been mystical and transformational and filled with "prayer experiments" gone right. Chelan has regularly been compared to the great mystic poets, Rumi, Hafiz, and Rilke. She lives in a geographically spectacular region of Washington State, The Columbia Gorge, with her husband and two small children. In her poetry and in her life, Chelan continually invites the fumbling, suffering parts of our nature and our divinity to meet for tea in the heart, to have a great laugh, and share a big hug.

Website: chelanharkin.com
Facebook page

Some of the main points discussed in this conversation:

Chelan’s background and introduction to poetry by Hafiz. Her shift from effortful poetry to spontaneous “downloads”.
Chelan reads some of her favorite poems throughout the interview.
Chelan’s subjective experience when a poem starts to “come through” – a full-body tingle and a sense of urgency; a mingling of her spirit with something larger.
What the world might be like if everyone unlocked their full potential.
Chelan’s transformative experience with hypnosis as a process for the development of consciousness.
There is no joy in smallness. Chelan reads the poem ‘I AM TOO MUCH!’
The growth potential of marriage and parenthood.
Opening the heart and connecting with the divinity within us.
Sensitivity to ‘truth’ and addressing that which is not aligned with it.
Being able to have pain move through us without hurting us.
Chelan’s collaboration with Daniel Ladinsky.
Chelan’s upbringing in the Baháʼí faith. All people and religions are fundamentally united in a common source.
Chelan’s mystical experience and creative inspiration in a cell in Israel in which the founder of the Baháʼí faith was imprisoned.
Developing a harmonious relationship between knowledge and experience.
Chelan’s current and future projects.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Interview recorded July 3, 2021

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.