Within
each of us there is the ability to feel in images, to see what is
beyond sight, to touch reality that can hardly be captured in mere
words. Yet, it is often through words that we communicate those
images, those sights, that reality. Poetry, unlike conversation
for the sake of conveying information, uses words like art. Words
become the paints that depict the images and reality onto the white
paper canvas.
Like prayer, poetry digs deep into the fibers of our psyche and
soul and out of those depths draws the mystery and magic of human
life and emotions. Reading
and writing poetry takes us into that place of deep feeling
that leads
to prayer. There in the vastness of our own selves we give
voice to the soul’s longings in words that almost seem too deep to
utter. It’s not rhyme or meter or sophisticated language
that makes poetry or prayer. It is giving voice to simple words,
simple
truths, from within the uncharted layers of our being. Poetry
leads to prayer. Prayer leads to poetry. It is a dance of spiritual
moves
and each partner relies on the other to complete the steps
that create the ballet so beautiful. A
Process for Praying Through Poetry:
"Otherwise" by
Jane Kenyon. Copyright ©2005 by the Estate of Jane Kenyon.
"Noah's
Nightmare" by Brad Russell. Copyright ©2005
Brad Russell.
"Sonnet (On His Blindness) " by John Milton, c. 1652.
"Unbroken
Peace" by Renée Miller, Copyright ©2001 Sage and Spirit.
"Am
I to Lose You?" by Louisa Sarah Bevington,
1882.
"Transformation" by
Helen Schucman. Copyright ©2000 Foundation
for A Course in Miracles.
"Directly" by
R.T. Smith. Copyright ©2003
R.T. Smith. Original publication in the
Oxford American, July/August 2003.
"Open
Your Eyes" by Richard
Guy Miller, Copyright ©2003 Richard
Guy Miller.
"Honey" by Tina
Barr, Copyright ©2003
Tina Barr. Originally published in The Antioch Review,
and now appears in The Gathering Eye, winner of the Tupelo
Press Editor's Prize, and due out this year from Tupelo
Press.
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