Poet Shelia Campbell described poetry as "distilled experience." Poetry can also be an experience that plays a role in one's own distillation of Truth. Even if it is the distillation of just one moment of Truth. A moment of love or of doubt. A moment of fear, courage, confirmation, or, yes, even the unwanted, infinite "moment" of loss. From one poem to another, these moments will change, flowing into and through one another without losing either essence or edge.
The word poem has its roots in the Greek poeima, meaning
"created thing or work." It is the noun form of the verb poiein,
"to make, create." So, let not yourself be fooled into thinking that
poetry is a spectator sport. Neither let yourself be convinced that
poetry is little more than prose rearranged. It is a word-by-word,
line-by-line world, where there exists, as Master Suzuki said,
"nothing extra." A world created and waiting just for you, to read
your way inside and experience the essence of any one poem's
particular Truth--a Truth that might very well be your own.
What's poetry done for you lately? Likely not nearly enough!
Why? Because you're likely not reading enough!
Find some, make some, write some "created
things" . . . and let poetry do great things for you.
Copyright 2006. Ysabel de la Rosa.
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