Poetic Life

I talked with 4th and 5th grade students on Skype the other day, answering one question after another for 30 minutes straight. Two boys asked a question together because wondered the same thing: "Do you miss teaching?"

I didn't answer quite this way, but the answer is: most days no, some days more than I can stand.

And with spring weather comes the intense desire to teach physics and poetry. I miss teaching.

I like poetry--if you've been visiting this page for a while you probably know that--but in most of my circles, I'm usually a little embarrassed to admit it. To most people, especially in the Evangelical church, poetry is at best too complicated and at worst just plain weird.

I'm not much of a poet and I don't even read poetry very often. It's complicated for me too, it takes some work. But I guess the reason I keep coming back to it from time to time is that there are emotions in life that must be expressed somehow. It's the same reason we sing in church, because your average spoken sentences and paragraphs simply cannot fully portray the glory of the Lord.

(And for every 99 poems that go over my head, the 1 treasure I find tends to make it worth it--like that line from TS Eliot shared here the other week that continues to send my mind reeling.)

So I was surprised, yesterday, to find John Piper talking to his staff about the importance of poetry. I guess I knew he liked poetry--but enough to be talking to his staff about its importance? That doesn't seem like him. Isn't poetry just a hobby?

Most in Evangelical circles would laugh at me for my love of poetry, but they wouldn't dare laugh at John Piper, would they?

He quotes Leland Ryken: "At least a third of the Bible is written in poetic form. Its prevalence shows that God wants people to understand and enjoy it."

We are obliged to know something about poetry to at.the.very.least understand the Bible in its fullest. But I have a feeling, with Piper, that there's even more to it than just that...in appreciating the world around us, in expressing ourselves, in communicating God, in communicating with God...

So, April is coming, and if you still live in the United States, it's National Poetry Month again. Maybe it's time to find a few things to read. Maybe you should try your hand at writing a thing or two.