The Portal.
This page is about poetry, remembering, and the radical act of refusing to forget that we belong to the world.
I believe two things deeply: that we are more connected than we have been taught - to each other, the living earth, ancestors, and to the whole family of life - and that poetry is one of the most reliable portals back to that knowing. Poetry breaks us open just enough to act, to love, and to find our way home.
Every Monday morning I send a short letter. Each issue has four parts: a threshold - a brief naming of what is present in the world; a poem - original or retrieved from my archive, written toward the moment; a practice one small invitation into co-creation; and a closing thread to carry into the week.
These letters are not instructions for how to live. They are invitations to slow down, notice what is alive around us, and reconnect with the deeper rhythms of life. The times we are living through are asking something of us, inviting us back into relationship through deeper listening.
In this sense, creativity becomes a form of quiet alchemy - transforming attention into care, imagination into possibility, and words into acts of service to the world we share.
When we remember our interconnectedness, something shifts.
We reclaim our purpose and power.
We begin the long journey of return - to ourselves, to one another, and to the living world.
If this kind of space resonates with you, you’re warmly invited to subscribe.
Every issue of The Portal is free to read for eight weeks. After that, posts move into the archive - available to paid subscribers as a growing collection of seasonal poetry and practice organised by the wheel of the year. If a paid subscription isn’t possible for you right now, write to me at amanda@amandacooke.com and I’ll gift you one. No explanation needed.
If you feel called to support me and my work as Founding Circle member, you’ll receive all of the benefits of a free and paid subscriber, as well as a 10% discount on my courses, workshops and books.
Sharing a post you love, liking or leaving a comment are all equally and gratefully received with so much love, so no pressure!
So in a nutshell, this space may be for you if…
• you sense that creativity and care for the living world belong together
• you are drawn to poetry as a way of listening more deeply to life
• you feel the times we are living through are asking something meaningful of us
• you are looking for a slower, more attentive way of engaging with the world
Many of the ideas, poems, and practices that begin here later grow into my courses, workshops, and shared creative spaces.
Finally, a little bit about me…
As a poet, lawyer and mother, I have spent my life, in different languages, making the same argument: that we belong to each other and to the living world, and that this belonging is not sentiment. It is sacred contract.
Now writing helps me chart the often strange course between my internal and external worlds, between the known and unknown and back and forth through time in my quest for personal and collective remembering and reconnection.
My work invites a return to the sacred language of the world - to listen deeply, write intuitively, and reimagine how we live and create in right relationship with one another and the Earth. Through courses, workshops, meditations, and community spaces, I guide others in rekindling their creative voice as a force for healing and renewal. You can find them at amandacooke.com.
If this way of seeing and listening resonates with you, you’re warmly welcome here.
Here is what other Substacks recommending Letters from the Clearing have to say:
"If your soul needs nourishing, head here immediately. Amanda sprinkles deep wisdom and mystical truths like confetti, and her poetry always facilitates a homecoming. For reconnection to what is most important, there is no better Substack." Chloe Hope, Death & Birds
“Amanda's poetry is a balm for the soul during troubled times. Her connection and commitment to presence with all things show us the way forward.” Mariah Friend, Heartbeats
“I love Amanda's mystical lens on life, and her beautiful poetry.” Phoebe Freer, Life Writing Alchemy
I truly appreciate you and your precious attention. In these saturated times, giving it here is no small thing, so thank you!
Yours in reconnection and radical hope, Amanda x
P.S. You can download the Substack app here.
I acknowledge the Yuggera/Turrbal peoples, the traditional custodians of the land I write from, and pay my respects to their elders throughout time, as well as the ancestral spirits, waterways, and lands on which I live. It's a privilege to live and create on this beautiful land, for which I am deeply grateful.
