Painting with Poetry

You are like poetry

You have many shades

Colorful thoughts never ending

Ideas unique to you

Carefully inspired 

On the canvas of your mind

By the gods and goddesses

Of timeless worlds

 

Writer’s Quote Wednesday – What is the Point of Poetry?

Writer’s Quote Wednesday

Writing challenge from Silver Threadings blog.

“When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of man’s existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. “

John F.  Kennedy

I have known a few people over the years who were very intelligent yet said to me that they did not understand poetry. It did not make any sense to them. It was just a bunch of words strewn together with no point. What was the practical purpose?

I have decided to add this statement to my personal list of red flags of men not to date. Please do not take offense if you do not like poetry. This goes beyond not “liking” poetry. These were people that truly did not understand what they were reading at all. 

Keep in mind, that… loving poetry and having the capacity to understand the point of it are two different things.

Understanding the depths and richness of emotion in poetry requires a certain level of empathy. Understanding  “the point”  of poetry at all requires some passion within the soul.

The point of poetry is humanity.

The desire and pursuit of power above all else has a tendency to deaden the soul and darken the spirit. 

I no longer intend to spend my heart and emotions on people who have low levels or non-existent empathy. You do not have to agree with a poem to understand that point of it is “to feel something” and to connect with the human condition.

This practice of trying to detach from the human condition by denying one’s own empathy and humanness is something that could be the downfall of humanity itself.

Feeling is at the heart of my writing. Where the pursuit of ultimate power begins to strip away the empathy from men, I believe that keeping poetry alive in my heart and pen will keep empathy alive in me. It is in the human connection that we live fully. This inevitably comes with pain but pain is part of life’s design. 

If the ability of being able to see the point of understanding another person’s pain becomes lost. then we are all lost…are we not?

It is better to feel pain sometimes in order to be vulnerable enough to experience deep connection, passion and love. To feel our own pain as well as that of another person. 

Empathy also means being able to understand the passion and the love that another person feels. Passion that burns within a soul. Love that feels all encompassing…

That is empathy. That is poetry.