Learning to embrace poetry

Love it or hate it, April is National Poetry Month.

I’ve tried to love it, but it doesn’t always work out between us. More often than not I get a few pages into the new and selected poems of a well-known poet and I begin to wonder what I’ve gotten myself into. Maybe you’ve had a similar experience. Upon reaching the last line you scratch your head and ask yourself: “What the hell are they even talking about?” When this happens enough times, you may decide to throw in the proverbial towel.

This week Ada Limon, the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, released her closing lecture in the form of a book, Against Breaking: On The Power of Poetry. This slender book is her attempt to make a case for poetry. I would like to join her in attempting to convince you of the power and importance of poetry.

Although you may have been confused and perplexed by a hundred poems before it, there is always that one precious string of words waiting for you. Yes, the odds are against you, but it is worth the struggle — through limerick, haiku, free verse and sonnet — to find that diamond in the rough that speaks to exactly what you’ve felt but could not find the words to describe. I don’t want to sugarcoat this; it will not be easy. But so often, the most rewarding things in life are also the most challenging.

In a recent guest essay in the New York Times, Cal Newport, proponent of “deep work” and “digital minimalism” drew a comparison between the challenge of physical and mental exercise. Most of us would agree that there is a correlation between physical activity and physical health. The need for physical exercise has become important due to a rise in sedentary lifestyles. So, we commit to an early morning jog, or a few push-ups at lunch, or the gym after work. But how many of us make the same commitment to exercise our minds? Newport argues that there is also a correlation between mental exercise and mental health. I believe that poetry is one of the ways that we can “hit the gym” with our minds. Deep, sustained thought is hard work, but if all we ever do is zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski, as Nicolas Carr wrote back in 2008, we will miss that diamond in the rough every time. And because poems are made up of language that has the “ability to hold truths that normal conversation simply can’t contain,” as poet James Crews writes, it can offer us something especially suited for our challenging times: wisdom.

One collection of poetry that I refer to often, both personally and professionally, is the Bible. This may come as a surprise to some, since the Bible is often thought of as nothing more than an outdated rule book. The general consensus among scholars is that at least one third of the Bible is written in poetic form, making it one of the most notable collections of poetry ever curated. Recognizing that the Bible is made up of numerous literary genres can help us better understand its purpose. What if the Bible was never meant to be some sort of owner’s manual for faith, but was intended to serve as a source of wisdom? The authors of the ancient book of Proverbs, which is considered both poetry and Wisdom Literature, seem to have understood this: “Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold (Proverbs 3:14-15). In the end, wisdom, beauty and shared experience — all of which poetry offers in spades — do more to connect us to one another and the divine than rules do.

So, I invite you, if only for this month, to read a poem, or two, or three or a hundred. Read them fast or slow. Read them aloud or in silence. Read them alone or together. Mull them over and let the words sink into the depths of your being. Don’t rush and don’t be discouraged by the ones that baffle you. Scour the pages of rhyme and verse for the diamond waiting in the rough, as if written just for you. When clarity is hard to find, take the advice of Limon and put your faith in poetry.

May you find the words you need in the moments you need them and be guided by the wisdom they offer.

Riley Enns is an armchair theologian and the pastor at Church of the Way in Winnipeg.