In his book, Sanctuary of the Soul, Richard Foster, in his chapter entitled "Words Dancing with Beauty," that there are three things that make poetry especially helpful in settling our mind in order to slow our minds to enable them to meditate. "First, poetry startles us with its economy of words and beauty of language. Second, many of us do not understand what the poet is saying on the first read. This forces us to stop and go backhand read the words again. A poem most often has a double meaning, and it takes us a while to move past the surface subject of the poem to the deeper issue the poet is after. As we begin to understand the poem, we realize that the racing of our mind has calmed down considerably. Third, the mind is often captured by the metaphor of a poem. A metaphor, of course, takes two very different things and shows one way in which they are similar. For instance, Robert Frost's famous lines..."two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference." Our mind is captured by the image of the fork in the road, and that focuses our attention as we think about the choices we have to make in life. So the metaphor in the poem helps to center a wandering mind."
Richard Foster goes on in this chapter to illustrate several lines in selected poems that describe the indescribable. Yellow flames flutter
about the feeder:
A Pentecost of finches by Robert Siegel a present-day poet.
Some have called poetry the language of God. I can see why.
The Maker's Space next event is Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015, when we will take some time to look at some poetry along with some gourmet hors d'oeuvres and wine. RSVP @2013themakersspace@gmail.com for more information.
Comments
Post a Comment