When Prose Is Poetic

Some writers just have a way with words, and N.D. Wilson seems to be one of those writers.  Even his prose is often poetic.  This was certainly the case in his 2009 book, Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, and it comes out again in his most recent book, Death by Living.  To give you an example, I've taken the liberty of arranging a few paragraphs of prose from Death by Living into poetic form below so you can see what I mean.

If life is a story,
how shall we then live?
It isn't complicated
(just hard).
Take up your life
and follow Him.
Face trouble.
Pursue it.
Climb it.
Smile at its roar
like a tree planted
by cool water
even when your branches groan,
when your golden leaves are stripped
and the frost bites deep,
even when your grip
on this earth is torn loose
and you fall among mourning saplings.

Or consider the following:

This world is all incarnation.
Words made flesh.
Words.
God has seen and God has said.
His imagination is bone-shaking
and soul-shivering,
and He has never groped
for words to capture
(and be) those things.
He imagined galaxies and clogged drains
and sharks and harmonies
and emotions and running
and villains and foes and fungus
and that heavy marriage of airs
that we call water
that can skip rocks
and light and wind,
that can quench and freeze and baptize.
He imagined and felt
the ache of a mother's love
and the mortal yearning
caused by the thrust of time
and the speed of the falcon
and the fear of a hare
and minor chords
and the smell of carpet glue.
And none of these things
were any good as ideas.
They became words.
Sounds mouthed by the Infinite.
Rhythms, verbally enfleshed
and shaped by the divine.
They were spoken.

Poetry Is an X-Ray

A few weeks ago, I began teaching a Wednesday night Bible study at our church on the book of Lamentations.  In the introduction and overview lesson, I tried to make the point that Lamentations captures poetically the grief and sorrow experienced by the people of Jerusalem during and after the fall of their city.  I mentioned that 2 Kings 25 and Jeremiah 52 capture the bare facts (in prose), while Lamentations captures the raw emotions (in poetry).  And I reminded our congregation that poetry has the ability to capture emotions much better than does prose.

Then, a few days ago, one of our church members sent me a link to an interview he heard on NPR with an exiled Iraqi poet who had to flee her homeland because of war.  This interview, and her poetry, illustrates well what I was trying to communicate about Lamentations.  In particular, I appreciated her comment that "poetry is not medicine - it's an X-ray.  It helps you see the wound and understand it."  That's exactly what the poetry of Lamentations does - it provides an X-ray of the grief and sorrow of God's people due to the destruction of Jerusalem.

So, when you read through Lamentations, keep that quote in mind.  Remember that the poetry of that book is meant to provide you with an X-ray of the emotional wounds suffered by God's people.
 
To read the NPR interview with Iraqi-American poet, Dunya Mikhail (and to read some of her poetry), click here.        

Poetry and Melody

The following quote is from a book about music recently given to me by a church member who is an avid reader and fellow poetry lover.  While the author doesn't seem to completely share our biblical worldview (especially as it relates to creation and evolution), he does make some fascinating observations and insights. 

In the opening chapter, he draws a connection between poetry and music, arguing that poetry is rhythmic, melodious, and serves as a form of music.  I couldn't agree more.  Here's the way he states it:  

[W]hatever its form, written poetry is characterized by a kind of music.  Accent structures in words naturally make a sort of melody.  In the word melody itself the first syllable is stressed, which makes it louder than the others, and most native English speakers will give it a higher pitch than other syllables.  The word melody has a melody!  Good poetry plays with speech sounds to create a pleasing set of pitch patterns, and good poetry contains rhythmic groupings that are songlike.  When a poem succeeds, it is a sensual experience - the way the words feel in the mouth of the speaker and the way they sound in the ears of the hearer are part of the encounter.  Unlike prose, most poems ask to be read aloud.  This is why poetry lovers usually do so.  Just reading the poem is not enough.  The reader needs to feel the rhythms.

--Daniel J. Levitin, The World in Six Songs

A Rap about Charles Spurgeon

Some of you may have already seen and heard this track by Shai Linne, but it's a combination of poetry and the story of God's grace seen in Charles Spurgeon. I had several friends send it to me, so I thought I'd post it here for others to view.

The Power of Poetry

On Poetry
Justin Wainscott, © 2011

Have you ever noticed
that when people want to say
something significant,
something memorable,
something striking,
they reach for poetry
rather than prose?

Think of life's most
meaningful moments -
graduations, weddings, funerals.
Think of history's most
stirring speeches -
political, religious, dramatic.
What do most of these
hold in common?
The presence of poetry.

The Poetic Wisdom of Proverbs

The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know over what they stumble.

--Proverbs 4:18-19

Poetry and Science

From the "Quodlibet" section of the most recent issue of Touchstone:

When the spring breeze comes through the window of my library and billows the curtains, or I see the breath of God make the trees outside dance, I wonder about wind. I think briefly about oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen, whatever. But when I reach for an explanation, I don't reach for science. I wish I were a poet. I feel poetic.

Poetry as a mode of explanation. That's an ancient and medieval instinct. Lucretius chose poetry as the vehicle for exploring the nature of things because it sweetened the hard doctrines of his Epicurean atomism. But he also thought poetry was a suitable, even revelatory, medium of explanation. Apparently, so did David, and Isaiah, and the author of Job, and Jesus, and John on Patmos.

Grateful for all the gains of science, I cannot help but wonder what we have lost in the several centuries since science secured its monopoly of explanation.

--Peter Leithart

Our God, the Poet

What beautifully comforting and vividly poetic words the Lord uses in this promise of his Word:

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.

--Isaiah 35:1-2a

Poetic Excess

From the Quodlibet section of the July/August issue of Touchstone (by Peter Leithart):

Poetry is a concentrated excess of language. Concentrated, because it always means more than it says. Excessive, because it always says more than it needs to say, because in many cases it need not be said at all.

Concentration: "The Lord is my shepherd" is a simple declarative sentence, but it unlatches a window on an alternative world, in which God is a shepherd, men are sheep, lives are pathways, providential discipline is a rod, and so forth.

Excess: Andrew Marvell could have said: "It's late, and we're going to die, so let's make love now." What he said was, "Had we but world enough and time,/this coyness, Lady, were no crime," and then went on to speak of the Ganges, the conversion of the Jews, worms and decaying corpses, and the cherubic (or Apollonian) chariot of time pressing close.

No wonder God chose to write so much of his own book in poetry.

Creation's Worship

The following words were written (originally in prose form) by Peter Leithart in the "Quodlibet" section of the current issue of Touchstone. I found them to be worthy of poetic form and took the liberty of arranging them so (I hope Dr. Leithart won't mind).

Creation's Worship
Peter Leithart, 2010

Why do birds sing at daybreak?
Why does frosted gravel sparkle
like diamonds in the sun?
Why do spring lilacs
cast their aroma out on the air?

Hearing, sight, smell -
all are senses that receive their pleasures
at a distance. But why?
For whom or what?

For us, no doubt.
Smells, sounds, and sights
draw us from a distance,
inviting us to draw near
to taste and touch.

But not only for us.
For the Christian,
the ultimate answer is liturgical.
Creation exists to offer praise to the Creator,
and in her worship,
the Church participates in that cosmic liturgy -
humanly articulating the sounds, sights, and aromas
that already ascend to heaven.

Poetry, Imagery, and the Economy of Words

Good poets provide rich imagery with their words, carefully crafting phrases that capture the reader's imagination. And because they have to be more economical with their words than writers of prose, they often employ the use of imagery in order to say more with less.

Take, for instance, the imagery captured in the words David used in Psalm 7:14 (italics added):

Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.

Notice not only the vivid and progressive imagery - from conception to pregnancy to giving birth - but also how succinctly he was able to express this thought, in contrast to the prose of James 1:14-15 (which describes a similar progression but with twice as many words and with a different resulting triad - desire, sin, and death instead of evil, mischief, and lies):

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

It's not that one is necessarily better than the other; both are the authoritative Word of God. It's just a reminder of how much truth is packed into just a few words and images used by a skilled poet. And it's also a reminder to read the poetry of the Scriptures slowly and carefully - meditating on the rich imagery contained therein.

Douglas Bond on Poetry in Modern Reformation Magazine

Douglas Bond has an excellent article in the March/April 2010 issue of Modern Reformation magazine on the significance of poetry titled, "The Devil Hates Goose Quills: And Why It Matters to the Church." Unfortunately, it is not available online, so I will share a few of the quotes I appreciated most from the article.

Martin Luther, who said, "The Devil hates goose quills," insisted that in a reformation, "we need poets."

Martin Luther cared deeply about poetry, in the most vital way. But do most Christians today? Most accept the decline of poetry without a wimper, with barely a wafture of good riddance.

The devil likely applauds Christians who shrug indifferently as genuine poetry twitches into the abyss. Yet the Bible contains the finest poetry of the ancient world.

The devil abhors poets like [Martin] Luther and [Isaac] Watts, who used their goose quills to adorn the loveliness of Jesus.

"The highest form of poetry is the hymn," wrote [John Greenleaf] Whittier....

The devil hates goose quills, including ones wielded by able poets who train their pens to the highest use - crafting psalm-like hymns that lift the heart, mind, and imagination from our puny selves and enthrall us with Christ alone.

To read (and hear) some of Douglas Bond's hymns, click here.

How the Young Are Taught

Sabbath Poems, 2005 (VIII.)
Wendell Berry

I tremble with gratitude
for my children and their children
who take pleasure in one another.

At our dinners together, the dead
enter and pass among us
in living love and in memory.

And so the young are taught.

--Taken from Leavings: Poems, Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry on How to Be a Poet

How To Be a Poet (to remind myself)
by Wendell Berry

Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill - more of each
than you have - inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your work,
doubt their judgment.

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

--Taken from Given: Poems, Wendell Berry, pp. 18-19

The Benefits of Poetry (or Why Reading This Blog Is Good for You)

I do not mean for the parenthetical title of this post to be self-serving (though I realize it might sound that way). But with a blog called "Theology in Verse," should it really surprise you that I think you will benefit from reading the poetry and hymnody that I frequently post? Turns out, I am not the only one who feels that way.

Below are a number of quotes about the value of poetry taken from David Gordon's book, Why Johnny Can't Preach: The Media Have Shaped the Messengers. The last one, which you should definitely take to heart, is actually a quote that Gordon includes from Sven Birkerts in his The Electric Life: Essays on Modern Poetry. Hopefully, the following will encourage you to become a regular reader of verse.

Reading verse rescues us from the mundaneness of life; it permits us to observe again with wonder, and shocks us out of our cynicism and joylessness.

The poet stops and stares at that which most of us merely glance at; he pauses to notice what is humane, significant, and important.

Verse is a common-grace gift that enables us, through the fog of images and sounds, to again see ourselves and others as bearers of the image of God.

When the poet stares at that which the rest of us merely glance at, he invites us to take a longer look with him. It is precisely this longer look that is necessary to cultivate a sensibility for the significant.

Reading texts (and especially verse) cultivates the sensibility of significance. Verse is comparatively dense; line for line, more is in it than prose, and much of what is there is an eye for what is significant about life.

The harder it is for you to slow down, the more you need to be rescued from the twentieth century; the more you need poetry.