SEPTEMBER 2020
texts point to a reality beyond the words and images, drawing us into imagination, the realm of faith.
Poetry carries within it an inherent silence in its rhythm and pauses, and in its lack of answers. Silence creates an empty space in us, a space where newness can enter. Truth cannot enter an overcrowded room. A cup is useful because of its empty space. A lute makes beautiful music because of the emptiness inside it. Te empty space that silence creates in us is ready to receive. “Truth happens to the prepared mind,” wrote Bernard Lonergan in Insight. “God, whose love and joy are present everywhere/can't come to visit you unless you aren't there.” (Angelus Silesius)
Just the act of singing hymns together creates an empty space in us, a place ready to receive—because we send out the words of the hymn on a river of breath, a stream of song, emptying, emptying, sending the poetry out of ourselves and into ourselves, out of ourselves and into each other, now vibrating together with truth, and beauty. How could we not be changed?
Poetry is not a frill or a frippery, a last-minute throw -in to the human person, to be ignored or walked past. It is a precious gift from the God who spoke the world into being. Poetry expresses what cannot be expressed in ordinary words. It prods the imagination, it speaks in pictures, it evokes, invokes, invites, incites. As Mary Oliver wrote in A Poetry Handbook, “. . . poems are not words after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry. Yes, indeed.”
Susan Palo Cherwien is a writer, poet, and hymnodist. She is the author of the hymn text collections, O Blessed Spring: Hymn Texts of Susan Palo Cherwien; Vol. II: Come, Beloved of the Maker; and Vol. III: Peace,
Be Still (all with Augsburg Fortress); as well as hymn festival reflections collected in Crossings: Meditations for Worship, From Glory Into Glory: Reflections For Worship, and To God I Give My Melody (all with MorningStar Publications).
FEEDING THE POET SPIRIT:
• Buy or borrow a good anthology of poetry, sacred or secular. Place it next to your most comfortable chair. Read one poem aloud each day—upon arising, or before sleep. Choose a few kindred companions from the many, and seek out more gifts from these poets.
• Memorize a favorite poem. Speak it aloud. Let the air vibrate with the words.
• Go on walks in nature or sit outside in a yard or park. Notice what you are smelling, feeling, tasting, hearing, seeing. Carry a pocket-sized notebook with you. Jot down any ideas that come to you as you walk—they can evaporate like the dew.
• Memorize a hymn in Latin or Greek or Hebrew, or any language in which you are not fluent. Take it into your heart. Chant it or sing the hymn aloud.
• Write, actually write, on paper.
• Try doing Julia Cameron's “Morning Pages.” Do not judge. Just write. (
https://juliacameronlive.com/ basic-tools/morning-pages/)
• Cultivate beginner's mind. Choose not to know for a moment. Now read aloud a favorite Gospel story. Write down what you are seeing with new eyes, what you are hearing with new ears.
• Choose a simple form, like a haiku (three lines: syllables of 5-7-5) or a ballad (four lines of alternating four stresses, three stresses). Write a paraphrase of a favorite psalm or scripture passage. Use images from this beautiful creation, sensations from our blesséd bodies.
53
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
