Give Us Our Daily…Poem?

The world’s a mess these days. There are a million things to stress us, scare us, frustrate us, worry us. Basically, human (certainly mine and maybe your) responses to all of the big issues and lists of things that need to get done fall into one of (or a blend of) several responses: 1. Try to fix it. 2. Try to ignore/deny it. 3. Yell/cry/blame.  The first one’s okay, and sometimes it works—it’s usually a pretty good approach whether it works or not. The second is mostly trouble, except when it’s a matter of recognizing that the problem is either not mine to fix, or that it’s not within my ability, then it’s a moderately healthy response. The third never much gets me anywhere. There are two other common human responses to living in this messy world that come to mind. The first is prayer—pretty much the only universally useful and sanity-inducing tactic out there. The second is my other favorite, and one that generally reflects some of the loveliest parts of what it means to be human, and that’s to make something beautiful with words. Which brings me to poets and poetry.

Mostly poetry is taught badly in the schools, and mostly people think of it as something for romantics and brainiacs. Not so. Poetry is one of the ways humans have always tried to explain themselves to other humans, and also one of the ways humans have both made sense of the world around them, and made records of their encounters with the beauty and terror of the world. It can’t pay bills, mend bones, or make peace. But it can soothe a broken heart, strengthen a flagging spirit, give words to great rejoicing, break us open into laughter, and make us remember what it is to pray. If you’re a computer person, you can sign up for an email service called yourdailypoem.com that sends you a poem every day that does one of those things. It’s run by a lovely woman, Jayne Jaudon Ferrer, who’s dedicated a good bit of her time to proving that poetry is neither inaccessible, nor boring. You might check it out. Today’s poem, by Tony Gruenewald, is titled “Proverbs I-95” and imagines what the writer of the book of Proverbs might have written had he or she been living today. It begins

There are six things
the Lord hates,
yes, seven are an
abomination to Him;
tailgaters, lane weavers,
those who eschew
turn signals or get into the wrong
toll lane;…

If you’re maybe looking for some good poets to read—people whose poems won’t make your head hurt, but will make your heart sing-- you can check out some of these: Kathleen Norris, Scott Cairns, Mary Oliver, Annie Dillard, Andrew Hudgins, Louise Erdrich, Robert Cording, Thomas Lynch, Jeanne Murray Walker. You don’t even have to go to the library—you can just google their names along with “poems” and you’ll find at least a sampling. Even in a dark time, there are still voices out there proclaiming the light. It’s a comfort to me; I thought maybe it might be a comfort to some of you, too.

Yours in peace, 
Devon