{"id":16786,"date":"2018-05-22T09:30:18","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T13:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16786"},"modified":"2018-05-22T09:44:50","modified_gmt":"2018-05-22T13:44:50","slug":"poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16786","title":{"rendered":"Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Art: Week 2<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/poetry-2018-05-22\/\"><strong>Poetry<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Tuesday, May 22, 2018<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xtiUjNT_vAM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nBefore 500 BCE, religion and poetry were largely the same thing. People did not presume to be able to\u00a0<em>define<\/em>\u00a0the Mystery. They looked for words that could\u00a0<em>describe\u00a0<\/em>the Mystery. Poetry doesn\u2019t claim to be a perfect description as dogma foolishly does. It\u2019s a \u201chint half guessed,\u201d to use T. S. Eliot\u2019s phrase. [1] That\u2019s why poetry seduces and entices you into being a searcher for the Mystery yourself. It creates the heart leap, the gasp of breath, inspiring\u00a0<em>you<\/em>\u00a0to go further and deeper; you want to fill in the blanks for yourself.<\/p>\n<p>Poetry does this by speaking in metaphors. <em>All religious language is metaphor by necessity, <\/em>yet I must insist on this to every new group of students, especially Protestants who tend to understand the Bible in a more literal way. Religion points toward a Mystery that you don\u2019t know\u2014can\u2019t know\u2014until you have experienced it. Poetry gives you resonance more than logical proof, and resonance is much more healing and integrating. It resounds inside of you. It evokes and calls forth a deeper self. When religion becomes mere philosophy, definitions, moralisms, and rituals, it no longer has the power to transform.<\/p>\n<p>For poetry to be most effective, I believe it should be spoken aloud, embodied. After all, God didn\u2019t <em>think, <\/em>\u201cLet there be light\u201d (Genesis 1:3). God <em>spoke<\/em>, and creation vibrated into existence. Isn\u2019t it just like our Creator to imprint the subtlety and mystery of creativity in the <em>thisness <\/em>of each voice?<\/p>\n<p>Cynthia Bourgeault says that she gradually learned the value of speaking the scripture aloud before beginning to prepare a sermon on it:<\/p>\n<p>Nine times out of ten, when I finally read the passage out loud during the proclamation of the Gospel on Sunday morning, I hear exactly the phrase or innuendo that I should have preached on, but that escaped my reading eye.<\/p>\n<p>Virtually all spiritual paths begin their training with breath and tone\u2014conscious breathing, following the breath, vibrating the mantra\u2014and for good reason: these are the actual tools and technologies for engaging and energizing our more subtle inner being. [2]<\/p>\n<p>Poetry, like chant, is meant to vibrate through the uniqueness of our own voice for it to come alive. Don\u2019t take my word for it! Find your favorite poem and see if it becomes <em>real <\/em>in a new way when you say the words out loud.<\/p>\n<p>One of my favorite poets is Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). Here is one of his poems translated from German by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows. If you can, read it aloud slowly, musically.<\/p>\n<p>God speaks to each of us as he makes us,<br \/>\nthen walks with us silently out of the night.<\/p>\n<p>These are the words we dimly hear:<\/p>\n<p>You, sent out beyond your recall,<br \/>\ngo to the limits of your longing.<br \/>\nEmbody me.<\/p>\n<p>Flare up like flame<br \/>\nand make big shadows I can move in.<\/p>\n<p>Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.<br \/>\nJust keep going. No feeling is final.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t let yourself lose me.<\/p>\n<p>Nearby is the country they call life.<br \/>\nYou will know it by its seriousness.<\/p>\n<p>Give me your hand. [3]<\/p>\n<p>_________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling<\/p>\n<p>May 22, 2018<\/p>\n<p>WHEN THINGS DON\u2019T GO AS YOU would like, accept the situation immediately. If you indulge in feelings of regret, they can easily spill over the line into resentment. Remember that I am sovereign over your circumstances, and humble yourself under My mighty hand. Rejoice in what I am doing in your life, even though it is beyond your understanding. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In Me you have everything you need, both for this life and for the life yet to come. Don\u2019t let the impact of the world shatter your thinking or draw you away from focusing on Me. The ultimate challenge is to keep fixing your eyes on Me, no matter what is going on around you. When I am central in your thinking, you are able to view circumstances from My perspective.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1 PETER 5:5\u20136\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"en-NIV-30471\" class=\"text 1Pet-5-5\"><sup class=\"versenum\">5\u00a0<\/sup>In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"poetry top-05\">\n<p class=\"line\"><span class=\"text 1Pet-5-5\">\u201cGod opposes the proud<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"indent-1\"><span class=\"indent-1-breaks\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"text 1Pet-5-5\">but shows favor to the humble.\u201d<sup class=\"footnote\" data-fn=\"#fen-NIV-30471a\" data-link=\"[&lt;a href=&quot;#fen-NIV-30471a&quot; title=&quot;See footnote a&quot;&gt;a&lt;\/a&gt;]\">[<a title=\"See footnote a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1+Peter+5%3A5-6&amp;version=NIV#fen-NIV-30471a\">a<\/a>]<\/sup><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"first-line-none top-05\"><span id=\"en-NIV-30472\" class=\"text 1Pet-5-6\"><sup class=\"versenum\">6\u00a0<\/sup>Humble yourselves, therefore, under God\u2019s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>JOHN 14:6<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"en-NIV-26675\" class=\"text John-14-6\"><sup class=\"versenum\">6\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus answered, <span class=\"woj\">\u201cI am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Morning and Evening Devotional (Jesus Calling\u00ae) (p. 294). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Art: Week 2 Poetry Tuesday, May 22, 2018 Before 500 BCE, religion and poetry were largely the same thing. People did not presume to be able to\u00a0define\u00a0the Mystery. They looked for words that could\u00a0describe\u00a0the Mystery. Poetry doesn\u2019t claim to be a perfect description as dogma foolishly does. It\u2019s a \u201chint half guessed,\u201d to use T. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16786"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16791,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16786\/revisions\/16791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}