I read a literary essay once upon a time called, "Putting Words to Wonders." I like that phrase.
Perhaps that's what John was attempting to do when he described Christ as the Logos in John 1.
I have always, since a girl, loved reading and studying poetry, and I resonate to it on many levels . . . . intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, sometimes even physically. I don’t merely respond to the insights and ideas in poetry or the beauty of the images, but I “dance” to its music as well, its rhythms and its rhymes. I have also loved teaching my students to appreciate and enjoy poetry of all kinds, delighting in giving them the “keys” of understanding so they could unlock poems for themselves, and I have been rewarded by many students telling me through the years that coming to love poetry was a real gift to them.
I had never thought to write poetry myself, or at least I never entertained the idea of doing so beyond a sigh now and then that I wasn’t a poet. I certainly never “took up the pen” to create poems of my own. But in this several years of my pilgrimage I have been inspired and encouraged to do so, and I am finding it a joy, a release, and a stimulus to thinking creatively about other aspects of my life and where I am in my journey at this point.
A modern philosopher who has had special significance to me is Mortimer Adler, and one of his books I have turned to again and again is his little volume, Great Ideas from the Great Books. This book takes the form of questions asked of Dr. Adler which he answers using wisdom drawn from past thinkers. These questions cover a very broad range of the concerns of people living today from philosophy to science to theology to the arts. Adler’s answers are short and pithy, usually consisting of only a few paragraphs, but they never fail to be very insightful and thought-provoking.
So with the questions in yesterday's comments about poetry, today it popped into my head. . . . “Hmmm, wonder if anyone ever asked Dr. Adler about poetry and the human need to create it or why we respond to it.” I rummaged around in my bookshelves until I found my almost wornout copy, and sho nuff . . . someone had, and I’ve excerpted his answer here:
THE ESSENCE OF POETRY
Dear Dr. Adler,
I wonder what the essence of poetry is, what makes it different from other kinds of writing. Is it a matter of sound-values, of the tone and rhythm of syllables, words, and lines? Or does the essence of poetry lie in a certain feeling, sensitivity, or attitude toward things?
I. D. L.
Dear I. D. L.,
Most of us nowadays identify poetry with verse. For us, a poem is a writing arranged in lines having a definite rhythmical pattern, and expressing personal feelings and impressions. We distinguish poetry from prose, the language of ordinary speech and writing.
But poetry has a much wider meaning than current usage allows. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "to make." Although, originally, poetry meant any act of human creation, it soon took on the specific meaning of literary creation. The poet as distinct from the sculptor, painter, and other artists -- works with words.
Aristotle, in his famous treatise on poetry, says that poetry is an imitation of human action, expressed in language, with the aid of harmony and rhythm. [emphasis mine] By "an imitation," he does not mean a copy of actual events, such as a tape recorder or movie camera can provide. He means a representation of the universal aspects of human experience discerned by the mind of the poet and expressed in the concrete characters, events, and dialogue that he creates."
Dr. Adler goes on to explain that Aristotle, dealing mostly with narrative poetry, such as the great epics, had little to say about lyric poetry, which is what most people think of when they think of poetry.
He says that “for Aristotle, the particular patterns of sound and rhythm, the formal style and prosody, are of secondary importance. The main thing for him is what the poem is about -- a sequence of interrelated human actions,” the great stories of human existence and the truth they contain about living the good life.
On the other hand, Dr. Adler writes about the Roman writer Horace, who also wrote a work on poetry, and who concentrates on the elements of sound, style, and verbal arrangement, viewing “poetry's primary function as providing pleasure, relaxation, delight.”
Still others, he explains, “maintain that poetry has a moral and prophetic function, providing us with instruction as well as delight.” Indeed certain books of the Bible were written in poetry.
His final note though is that Aristotle “ takes a middle position. On the one hand, he holds that poetry provides enjoyment and a desirable emotional release. On the other, he holds that poetry provides a representation of universal aspects of existence. The poetic imagination, for Aristotle, deals with essential realities and is to be taken very seriously.”
But reading his answer reminded me that Aristotle in his Poetics had said that “poetry implies either a happy gift of nature or a strain of madness.”
MY vote is that poetry is both, and where would we be without the “madmen” who have dared to tell us their stories both inspirational and amusing, to share with us their ideas and their pleasures, to sing us their songs through the “happy gift” of their poetry.
Simply put, poetry makes me happy . . . it delights me, it comforts me, it often challenges me in some way, it gives me joy. And sometimes it just makes me laugh.
And now I have been given the gift of sometimes expressing myself in poetry too . . . not great poetry, just poetry, and that’s enough for me.
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John 1:14—
"The Word [Logos] became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
"But there are good things that are seen beyond all speech or figure of speech, and we have a perpetual desire to try to express them. We are always trying to make the word into flesh. It is part of our nature. We are creators, because we were made in the image of the Creator. And no creature has a truer sense of the divine task of making the word into flesh than the poet." -Dale Ahlquist
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