On Sacred Poetry
Dear Church,
I’m thinking about poetry this week, in part cause we have a couple of wonderful poetry events coming up. Last week in worship, we shared about scripture itself: how might something become scripture in our canon, how does something become a sacred text in our own lives, and what’s our responsibility as those who carry part of the responsibility of scripture.
When I imagine how something becomes scripture in a community, sometimes I imagine a slow and almost geological progression: first it’s a saying, then it’s a story, then it’s a rhyme, then we write it down, then we decide we want to hold onto it. But I’m also struck by those moments in my life when I have to suddenly write something down: I have to take a note, I have to draw a picture, I have to inscribe a bold turn of phrase so I don’t lose track of it.
Sometimes poetry is like that for me: I don’t necessarily set out to write a poem, so much as I’m picked up a poem, like a strong wind, and when I find myself on my feet again there’s a page or a line or a scrawled-back-of-envelope in front of me.
Maybe you identify as a poet, and maybe you don’t. But I think that poetry is, like spirituality, a place all of us can go in our own ways. Passion catches you. Grief catches you. Rage catches you. And sometimes those emotions are clear enough or simple enough or subtle enough for prose, but often times we are drawn outside the lines of expected grammar, or we find the framework of a villanelle or a haiku to hold together the things we haven’t been able to otherwise name.
I hope you find some space for where poetry will take you, today or in the coming days. And I hope you consider joining in one of the upcoming poetry events at First Congregational. But whatever your relationship with poetry looks like, I hope you will take some moments to listen to what’s wild in you- and to see how that might carry you, how that might unfurl, how that might speak in and through you in this season.
May God bless your poet’s heart and give you place to speak and be heard.
Davi
