Poetry is one of my favorite genres of literature. I savor the works of Mary Oliver, David Whyte, and Denise Levertov, to name a few. In talking with a friend of mine recently, I had a difficult time finding the right words to define poetry so I went online and looked up the definition.
This definition of poetry comes from About.com by Mark Flanagan: “Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. Poetry has been known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is by no means necessary … The very nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly impossible to define.”
I thought about this definition of poetry with spirituality. For me, spirituality is about having all one’s energy moving in the same direction—flowing toward the One who created you, who fashioned you into being, who breathed love into the very soul of who you are. Spirituality is about taking seriously your relationship with God, being mindful of God in your own life, and waking up to a wider perspective of life.
With these definitions in mind, reading poetry can help us connect and deepen our spirituality by grabbing our attention and causing us to pause momentarily to ponder more deeply the mystery of life. Poetry can be a tool to deepen one’s spirituality by helping us connect our deepest emotional experiences of God with the language of rhythm, meter, and sound. Reading poetry can help us deepen our authenticity of spirit.
What expressions of poetry do you like to read? The classics? Contemporary? Freestyle poetry? Metered and rhyming poetry? Haiku? Poetry from different cultures? Who are some of your favorite poets?
May poetry help you stop and ponder the Mystery this day.
