Poetry

For me, any words that capture and convey experience is poetry.   Poetry is more than describing an experience or telling a story.   It is an invitation to experience the same thing that the poet has experienced.   It draws me into the inner life  of the poet.

Poetry cannot be forced or made up, it must be felt with all the depth and power of being actually present.   A poet does not simply observe but enters into the source of inspiration.   The poet then offers the same experience to the reader or listener in the art form we call poetry.

For me, as the reader or listener, it is a whole body experience, felt through an open heart.  Poetry is a sensuous experience, and it is best if I not shy away from it.

Poetry conveys more than a feeling.   Poetry conveys the experience of actually being there, of being present.   This is not the work of the mind trying to understand a poem, but the work of the heart absorbing the experience.   If the analytical mind has to be relied on too much, it obscures the experience of the poet.

To hear the voice of the poet, my rational mind must first quiet down.   Then I can listen to the voice that rises from within.   Heard this way, poetry allows me to listen too my own inner voice which at that moment has become one with that of the poet.

Poetry asks me to let go and be present in the sound and images of the words.   I become present as I would be in a majestic valley or velvet forest.   Every cell of my being is called to attention and summoned to tingle with excitement.   The words of the poet urge me to yield to a reality that the poet experienced.

Through poetry, I am able to enter into the awareness of another.  I experience the self of the poet.  I enter into their bones, their blood-stream, their skin.   We share our connective oneness.

When I become totally open to a poem, I make  the poet present.    The poet’s experience is at this instant my experience.

Every reading of a poem is a new experience.  A poem when read is a new encounter, never to be exactly repeated.   When I bring myself to a poem, it is a new reality each time.

Being a “poet” may be a license to write, but no one is truly a poet until their experience is felt and absorbed by others.    I am not a reader of poetry until I feel and absorb the experience of the poet.