Poetry as a Way of Prayer

There was a particular scenes in the movie Patch Adam that always stays in my memory. Dr. Hunter, played by Robin Williams, standing in front of his Wife's grave and start to recite a poem with a dramatic tone. The poem is written by Pablo Neruda a Spanish writer and it goes something like this,

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close."

For me, personally, this poem is one of the best expression of love that human can expressed through the media of words. The notion of there is no "I" or "you" really express the theological anthropological idea of sacred and mystical fusion. Two being become one, and without removing the unique identity and main characteristics of each other. Those can be distinguished but never been separated in its unity of love. Union in mind. Union in soul. Union in will. All purifies and glows in the dark. 

After I listen to that recitation in the movie, there was a tears coming out from my eyes. What a queer experience! Did not know whether the sad narratives or the word from the poem but I think, it was because of the poem. This is precisely like what Levertov believes in her poetry writing that although poem cannot change history, it can change an individual. It create a sense of being alive and create a chemical in the body to which the body does not forget, even if one forget the exact wording of a poem. In history we see amazingly on how Homer and its epic and poerty shape the Greek culture. 

Somehow, poem is mystical. When we say, "you are really beautiful" compare to "You are the lullaby of my heart", the output is utterly different. First is more direct, second is more deep. I bet, the second touched the soul better than the first. Poem or poetry is never for the purpose of manipulation. Poet help others to see the world base on the imaginative eyes of the poet. "In this blue light, I can take you there", says Emily Dickinson. Thus, poem enhances and surely enlarge our experiences.

The mystical dimension of poem, bring me to a deeper reflection on the relation between poem and prayer or to put it more precisely, can poetry become a form or way of prayer?  Interestingly, an American poet by the name of Robert Cording once says that, "poem is a form of prayer." Yes, we can pray to God not only through a direct utterance but through crafted phrases, and written poetry. This exercise is actually is like an act of contemplation. It expand our imagination, gives pleasure and also a kind of declaration that we are actually pray to beautiful and majestic God. 

Psalms, show this concern. Church fathers like Jerome and Eusebius argues that Psalms are poetry and we can arrive at the same conclusion when we read the book. Psalmists pray to God using poetry, to poured and expressed out the deepest core of his heart and emotion that isn't simple. And the expression of his soul through poetry is so profound. The use of parallelism, Chiastic Pattern, repetition show how Psalms is considered as a poetry.  C.S Lewis even praised that Psalms 19 is one of the greatest poem in the Psalter and even in the world! (Many people pray, using the last verse of the Psalms, as it was written, "May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and my redeemer").

In one of the great introduction of poetry, Helen Vendler says that to write poem, and become a poet, one need to have a good imagination and have a mastery of language. Yet, I think, as long as people are willing to share the window of their imagination through words, even they are not good at language, they are already a good poet in practical sense of the term. What the uppermost important is not merely about how professional we craft our poem, but how we can enjoy the process of making and expressing our inner world through words, directed to divine that deserve the most beautiful adoration. And indeed, captivated by His eternal beauty, we will progressively grow in our expression, through our words in the world of poetry naturally because God's beauty compels us to be a poet. And its earlier move of man before philosoper as William Barret wrote, "poets are witnesses to Being before the philosophers are able to bring it into thought."

  As I finished on writing this topic, I decided to make a poem and pray to God, and also enjoy the fellowship,

"You give me voice, so I can sing

You give me mind, so I can think

You give me hand, so I can write

The Everlasting songs, 

The Elevating Ideas, 

The  Enchanting poetry,

For the great Triune God,

Who deserves all the glory"

Amen