Thomas Keily

Thomas Keily is the Head Librarian at the Library of Love, a detailed resource of over 200 love poems, with a particular focus on weddings, set to launch in mid-2025. A former cabaret troupe director, he leads guided poetry bush walks around his home in Byron Bay, with a particular emphasis on the poetry of Walt Whitman. He spent three years studying with a Sufi community in Istanbul but now directs the expression of his faith through mystical Christianity.

Work/Presentation:

Was Walt Whitman high on shrooms? Psychedelia in the Mystical Poetic Tradition

This presentation explores the crossovers between the psychedelic state and the mystical state, as expressed through the great English-language mystical poets, including Walt Whitman, G.M. Hopkins, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, and others.