by Christine Sine
At the end of my interview with Drew Jackson for The Liturgical Rebels Podcast he asks: what does poetry have to do with our own journey and formation as people? What is it for in that sense? It’s a great question for us to ponder during this season of Lent. So much of the Bible was written in poetic form. yet we often ignore both the poetry that others have written and the poetry that wells up inside us.
Drew goes on to explain:
I’ve just been really intrigued by that question in terms of how poetry connects to our own transformation and formation. It really comes back for me to the need to let go of a need for answers. That is such an important part, particularly of the spiritual journey of learning to let go in that sense, because it’s learning to let go of a need for control, which is really, really hard for us to do. And I think particularly for us in religious spaces, the church has, especially in the West, been shaped to give people answers, right? Give people the answers that they need. And so I really, I think that what we need right now in the church is much more an invitation into the mystery of it all. And I think poetry is a doorway to that. So yeah, if you’re listening, my plea is sit with some poetry and see where it takes you and see how it leads you into the mystery. I know that poetry can often be intimidating for people. I think that’s particularly because of how it’s been taught to us in school. You don’t necessarily have to come to a poem and say, what does this mean? You can just let it linger for a while and see what rises in you.
I tell people, you know, just read a lot of different poets, see what resonates. In the same way that you listen to music, you listen to different artists, not every song, not every artist is gonna resonate with your heart and that’s okay. But you don’t stop listening to music because you didn’t like one song. You keep listening and you keep listening. And I would say the same thing about poetry. Just keep reading. keep reading and you’ll find the poems and the poets that sing to you.
When poetry sings for us we not only want to read more poetry, we also want to write it…. and for me that also means combining it with photos and visual images. I hope you enjoy this video of several of my prayers combined with photos I have taken over the last few weeks.
I think that this interview with Drew is perfect for weekend meditation.