Our Ultimate Inspiration

I believe in poetry, for it is at the heart of every worthwhile creative act we perform in our lives. I believe most people know they cannot live without air, food and water; but, I also believe most of us do not know we can’t live without the truth and beauty, the poetry, ever flowing in around and through us: That indescribable element which is the essence of all we cherish and aspire to.

For it is poetry which rouses us and sends us back into the fray each dawning day. It’s poetry we’ve dreamt of the preceding night; and, poetry we hope for as we venture forth each day: The hope which makes our individual struggles worthwhile. Not necessarily, that which one finds in profound thoughts expressed in carefully measured rhyme and meter; or, for that matter, even anything committed to writing: Tho’ both can be fine vehicles for the expressive power of which I speak. The “poetry” in which I believe is, rather, the feeling from which all beautiful expression rises.

Because, that is what poetry is: Feeling, experienced and expressed beautifully and with fearless sincerity. I believe every humane being has this poetic quality in them, narrating their movement through life, in the tranquil privacy of their interior-monologue. When we find the courage and eloquence to share that narrative, we become poets or lovers, or both. And we truly commune and communicate with all others.

Poetry is that shared essence of feeling which unites us, consciously, in our common humanity. It is the quality of experience that enables a screaming crowd of us to know the sound of a home-run at the crack of the bat, or causes us to sigh in unison at the sight of certain sunsets or lovers, or newborn babes. I believe it is this quality of life that will ultimately redeem us from darker side: The power of finding the beauty of truth, and the truth of beauty in our lives, and expressing it in all we say and do. Poetry, the creative love song of our most secret heart, is our ultimate inspiration. It should be the reason we do all that we do. This I believe.