As a creative force, the poem has a radical function in the deepest intimacies of our being.
A poem serves as a vehicle for inner transformation through the medium of a precise language employing subtle forms that serve to impact upon our sensibilities, and enable us to break away from habitual perceptions. Our receptivity to the immediate presence of a poem, and the revelations that emerges, sanctions the power of the poem.
The reader and the read enter into a deep relationship with each other where the act of total attention to the lines invites a significant shift of awareness to open out our sense of life and our humanity. The austerity of language and the single pointed precision whisper, if not shout, to the reader of a greater truth. The poem is the finger pointing to the moon. What it points to is neither on the lines, nor between the lines.
An authentic poem sacrifices itself, dissolves into its own mystery, to make way for what might be called a ‘spiritual’ waking up. With its hidden power and intimate significance, the authentic poem takes us into a deep realm of penetration into the conventional and unconventional.
One line of a poem can sink deep into our being on one day, and then another line or theme emerge on another occasion. In this meeting of the two, namely the reader and read, we become available for fresh ways of seeing.
The poem serves to speak to us of deeper truths within the disciplined structure of a handful of words. Our lives are enriched through the poem’s precocious capacity to shift us from a settled zone of view into a depth of consciousness that often remains inaccessible. The discerning care of the application of the lines of the poem has the potential to contribute significantly to ennobling and empowering our lives.Â
Your life will be nourished immensely through the reading of poetry. Do you have a book of poems at hand?