Touching the Spirit Through Poetry
For centuries, poets from Rumi to Shakespeare have used words to create spiritual worlds. The power of this art form is timeless. Poems written today can still feel transcendent and allow people to connect with their spirituality.
According to a blog on The Wisdom Daily, writing poetry can be a way to tap into spirituality. The beauty of poems is also their ability to express what lies deep within.
Poetry as a Spiritual Practice
Poetry can serve as a spiritual practice for people who are spiritual, religious, or both. Practices such as writing poetry can encourage a deeper sense of connection to something sacred, your inner world, or life beyond yourself. They may also encourage deeper reflection and offer new ways of understanding yourself and the human experience. Writing poetry can also allow you to embrace mindfulness and tap into your inner truth.
When Poetry Becomes Prayer
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Marie Howe believes poetry is a form of prayer, according to Tricycle. “It is a way of being, listening, quieting down to listen to that still, small voice,” Howe tells Tricycle. “It’s about something ineffable that’s trying to find its way through the poem.”
Howe also describes writing as a process of not knowing and staying open to whatever comes up. “I never know what I’m doing. I don’t have any idea, and I begin to write what the weather is, what the leaves look like, what the dog just did,” Howe says. “I wait to be taken over by something else, which is the best feeling in the whole world,” she adds.
Potter and Poetry
For poet and philosopher Wayne-Daniel Berard, the connection between writing and spirituality extends to Harry Potter, according to Worcester Magazine.
He first read the Harry Potter books as an adult and easily identified with the famous young wizard. “In a lot of ways, my background was like that. I was the boy who lived under the stairs,” he says.
“From a more macrolevel, the mythology just spoke to me. It just struck me that, in my own writing, for instance, there was a time when poets and writers would use the Greek legends and myths like a substitute language,” he adds.
Berard channeled his enthusiasm into his poetry, writing a book of full-length poems inspired by Harry Potter. He planned its release to coincide with renewed interest surrounding the upcoming “Harry Potter” television series. Berard’s work shows that poetry can draw inspiration from just about anywhere, even the magical world of Harry Potter.
Whether inspired by a beloved story or a moment of solitude, putting feelings into words can offer a meaningful way to reflect and explore what lies deep within. Poetry does not have to be complicated to be powerful — and through reading and writing poems, anyone can tap into the spirituality that lies at the center of their soul.
