Leaving the Shore
Experiencing Poetry as Prayer
Colette Lafia
Paperback
ISBN 9781966608035
$22.99
eBook available
December 9, 2025
Poems and related practices for a more contemplative life.
Leaving the Shore is a collection of poems with the intent of creating contemplative experiences for readers. The author has added guided Lectio Divina (sacred readings) and writing/journaling prompts, so that readers can pray and reflect with the poems.
Each poem is about some aspect of living the spiritual path: the desire to reach beyond what we know, the longing to step into the Divine Mystery, and the commitment to live in an intimate exchange of love with the Holy.
An experienced spiritual director, Lafia draws on her commitment to the contemplative life. These poems are an expression of contemplation in action as they explore the Holy in moments of daily living: within a marriage, while assisting a loved one dying, in the creative act of painting, and more. They are inspired by writings of the mystics, in particular Mechthild of Magdeburg and St. John of the Cross, and suffused with surrender, love, and awe. They invite the reader into prayer, self-reflection, and seeing their own lives as sacred texts.
Colette Lafia is an award-winning writer, retreat leader, and spiritual director. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. A graduate of the Spiritual Directors’ Institute at Mercy Center in Burlingame, California, she also completed the Living School program in the Christian contemplative and mystical traditions, guided by Richard Rohr, Cynthia Bourgeault, and James Finley. She is the author of The Divine Heart: Seven Ways to Live in God’s Love, which received a 2022 Nautilus Book Award, as well as Seeking Surrender: How My Friendship with a Trappist Monk Taught Me to Trust and Embrace Life, and Comfort and Joy: Simple Ways to Care for Ourselves and Others, named one of the best spiritual books of the year by Spirituality & Practice. As a contemplative teacher, Colette regularly gives retreats and workshops to an international audience both online and in person, and is a regular contributor to Gratefulness.org. To learn more visit https://colettelafia.com/.“Poetry is the voice of the soul, and in this beautiful collection, Colette Lafia brings us into the joys and sorrows of life, revealing how God's enduring love is present in all we experience” —Richard Rohr, author of The Tears of Things
“During these turbulent times, we need the steadying voice of feminine wisdom more urgently than ever. In this luminous book, spiritual guide Colette Lafia offers the fruits of her tenderly cultivated inner life to feed people of all genders who thirst for a direct encounter with the embodiment of love, which she recognizes as our own true nature.” —Mirabai Starr
“Though Colette Lafia confesses early on in Leaving the Shore, ‘I keep forgetting—/my holiness, my wholeness,’ her poems and invitations to explore the divine help bring us back to our own full presence in our world, remembering all that is worthy of worship. In these poems, the worn and dented kitchen table becomes an altar, and the simple act of changing clothes in front of a mirror leads to both revelation and breakthrough: ‘I see you. / I see you.’ Above all, through Lafia’s gentle guidance, we come to see ourselves in her generous words, and can hear again, in the sacred quiet this book holds for us, ‘the One Love in everything.’” —James Crews, author of How to Love the World
