Poetry's Importance in LIFE
As a "non-musician" and a "non-visual artist" I've found that many of the arts are dismissed to some degree. If the message has a "poetic" jingle with a tune or beat that is "catchy" or repetitive or even "entertaining" we use it. However I wonder about the aspect of reaching to a new depth in people. A place where people hide and things are Poetry is more than a jingle, a "catchy phrase", it is more than repetition and it should be more than just entertaining. It should have a message. Many poems have a story but what is the story behind the story? What is the reason the poet wrote it. For instance, "Roses are red, violets are blue"...BUT we know that. I wonder that we have made poetry less than what it was/is meant to be. A story or way of telling others what happened or what we saw on a particular day...OR we make it to difficult with words readers have to look up to understand what is being said.
We are more than "just" poets/word smiths/artists however. Some of us SEE and/or HEAR the music and the visual display, but who will join us because we dismiss poetry as something obscure or to difficult, yet it brings solace and comfort to the soul of men/women who may not even understand "what" is being said, but because there is more than a jingle, catchy phrase or repetition, but a MESSAGE and a depth, the soul may be spoken to, even in the hidden place. Through poetry one can break a bone or mend it. Proverbs 25:15 says, "a gentle tongue can break a bone". Proverbs 15:23 says, "A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!".
Words are a substance of LIFE! God's Spirit hovered, but nothing happened until He SPOKE...Words. A handshake was your "word" of integrity, character and truth and it either made you or broke you. The "Word" of God is about one-third poetry and in much of that is God's speaking to humankind. In fact one might say the Psalms are mens poetry to God, but if that poetry "man wrote" (as inspired by God) still speaks eternally it was/is truly God speaking through men and God speaking to men. The "Word" of God is ACTIVE and ALIVE!! It IS RELEVANT and NOT OLD or NEW. God's word is still "I Love You", and His call is still "Repent" to safety...to Me. During one time period it was understood to make a sacrifice or many, but now that Christ was/is the FINAL sacrifice, He was the WORD that was alive and active for salvation with the never ending call from the Old into the New...to Repent and Be loved and Become love and LIVE abundantly IN...The WORD that makes YOU...Alive. Poetry should have a message beyond entertainment, a jingle or catchy phrase or repetition although it may include those aspects...if the message is not there, perhaps you are reading or listening to something that is not bringing you into truth or life, God or repentance and it is not...relevant then. Will you turn your ear...to The Word? Value the poets and God as the ultimate poet/message/lover of humankind. He is truth and His "death" brought Him to a new height and us to salvation IF we will trust Him more than our sacrifices or ourselves.
Poetry is more than an art form, it is the form of art that visual and musical artists derive their tunes and pictures from but all art inspires those things...IF it is God's.
Value the poet in you, in me, in God's...Word.
