I believe writing poetry is an act of listening. It can mean listening to the voice of the creek, to the grass, to the hawk overhead, the bustle of the crowd as you pass trough, to the poem itself, unfurling in your mind. There are so many kinds of listening. All of them involve attention. All require space and time. We must attend to this listening if we mean to write poems. We must attend to what is often unattended. Sometimes we must listen to the voice of grief or the voice of despair, to the voices of those who are too often ignored. To the voices of our ancestors. To the small, insistent voice of joy. There are delicate and quiet voices that wish to make themselves heard, who else will hear them?
"I believe that when we listen to a poem, when we follow it where it’s going, it is also trying to bring us back into wholeness." Yes. This is so eloquent and beautiful. Thank you for these words!
I love all of this! I find that, in the writing life, I keep coming back to patience with silence ...reverence for the waiting as I allow the seed, the thread, the stitch to reveal their nature in their own time.
This is a remarkable reminder for poets and poetry lovers why poetry plays a huge part in working our way to not only inner peace but to the peace of the world.
This is so in keeping with everything spiritual I believe in, Danusha. We are gathering the shards of a broken world. I love this blog. Thanks.
I love the idea of a poem trying to piece something back together and make us/ the world whole.
"I believe that when we listen to a poem, when we follow it where it’s going, it is also trying to bring us back into wholeness." Yes. This is so eloquent and beautiful. Thank you for these words!
I love all of this! I find that, in the writing life, I keep coming back to patience with silence ...reverence for the waiting as I allow the seed, the thread, the stitch to reveal their nature in their own time.
Danusha, what a beautiful, intriguing post. I’m going to read it and reread it. So much to listen to; so much to learn.
Beautiful. Thank you!
This is a remarkable reminder for poets and poetry lovers why poetry plays a huge part in working our way to not only inner peace but to the peace of the world.