Coastal Poems at Tor House: Andrew Schelling Reads at Carmel-by-the-Sea

Perched on a bluff above the Pacific at Tor House, 26304 Ocean View Blvd in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Andrew Schelling’s poetry reading turns a coastal afternoon into a close encounter with language and landscape. For two hours Schelling — a poet, translator, and teacher — reads from Forests, Temples, Glacial Rivers and his translations in Old Time Love Song Magic, framing ecology and the rhythms of place through voices that bridge archaic Sanskrit and contemporary American poetics.

The setting matters. Tor House’s address puts listeners within earshot of surf, wind, and the scrubby stands of Monterey cypress and coastal sage that shape this stretch of the Monterey Peninsula. The stonework and ocean-facing outlook provide an intimate chamber for lines about bioregion, seasonality, and human attention to the nonhuman world. With a maximum of fifteen attendees, the event feels more like a salon than a lecture: you’re close enough to read the margin notes on a page, and far enough from the speaker to let the sea punctuate pauses.

Schelling’s work—praised for its kinship with poets who wrote about place and craft—moves between deep-time attention and the immediate grammar of weather and tide. Expect translations of Vidyā’s surviving Sanskrit poems side-by-side with contemporary reflections on forest ecology and riverine systems; the evening makes a classroom of the coastline, and the coastline a co-author.

Practical details keep the experience low-friction. The reading lasts two hours, costs $15, and meets at the Tor House address; group size is capped at 15. Seating is often limited and the site favors steady shoes and layered clothes against ocean breeze and fog. Arrival a few minutes early ensures you choose a comfortable vantage and gives you time to take in coastal views and the stone architecture.

Why book this? For readers and outdoor-minded travelers, the event is an uncommon blending of literary history and place-based environmental thought, anchored by a location where the sea and stone shape perception. It’s ideal for those who travel to listen—of poets, of tides, and of the landscape itself—and for anyone curious about translation, ecology, and the quiet intensity of a small group gathering on the edge of the continent.

Expect brief Q&A or chance to speak with the author afterward; bring a notebook, refillable water, and a light jacket. Street parking nearby can be limited—carpooling and arriving early are recommended. The compact group size makes it easy to ask questions about translation choices, ecosystems referenced in the poems, or Schelling’s approach to place-based verse, turning the reading into a small communal study.