Introduction to the Week 4 Lesson
We have come to our last session of our 4-week series. This is time to take inventory of the month: What have you discovered? How has poetry created space for intimacy with God? What poetic form resonated most for you? Where are you now? Where are you going? What practice or thought will help you get there?
As we continue our look into poetry and poetic forms, we are focusing more on rhythm. Our heartbeat is unique to us; our hum is like our fingerprint. Classical and Romantic poetry allow for this rhythm to come forth through strict form. As you look at the poems for this week, see how they contribute to the tone and sentiment of the poem itself. Consider what, in your life, contributes to you and your spiritual growth. Perhaps it is church or a religious community, or meditation time alone, or gardening. Whatever it is, how can you deepen it? What do you need to let go of (thoughts, obligations) in order to maintain and nurture your connection with God?
Poetic Form(s): Ode & Haiku
I mentioned last week that we will look at Sonnets this week. And we will. But I want the focus to be on the Ode and Haiku as both fit perfectly with this week's closing theme. I leave you with information and a worksheet for he Sonnet, which is a wonderful poetic tool, to work on in the coming weeks, if you don't get to it this week.
First, the definitions (poets.org):
“Ode” comes from the Greek aeidein, meaning to sing or chant, and belongs to the long and varied tradition of lyric poetry. Originally accompanied by music and dance, and later reserved by the Romantic poets to convey their strongest sentiments, the ode can be generalized as a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present.
A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Often focusing on images from nature, haiku emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression. Haiku began in thirteenth-century Japan as the opening phrase of renga, an oral poem, generally 100 stanzas long, which was also composed syllabically. The much shorter haiku broke away from renga in the sixteenth-century,
I chose the Ode and Haiku for this week because as you look at where you've come in the four weeks (reflect on your God Timeline that you did Week 1, your journal entries, your poems) the Ode allows a unique way to pay tribute and the Haiku is a short poetic form that brings in nature. These two forms bring us full circle (Pastoral vs Haiku, Timeline vs Ode) and a straight-forward container for reflection.
The Sonnet, a form or rhyme, is another wonderful poetic form that can pay tribute to your own rhythm with God. You can find more here.
Poetry
(Poems can be downloaded by clicking here. Audio is below).
"Ode to the Unbroken World, Which Is Coming," byThomas Lux
"Miracle Glass Co.," by Charles Simic
Haiku by Buson, Taigi & soji
We have come to our last session of our 4-week series. This is time to take inventory of the month: What have you discovered? How has poetry created space for intimacy with God? What poetic form resonated most for you? Where are you now? Where are you going? What practice or thought will help you get there?
As we continue our look into poetry and poetic forms, we are focusing more on rhythm. Our heartbeat is unique to us; our hum is like our fingerprint. Classical and Romantic poetry allow for this rhythm to come forth through strict form. As you look at the poems for this week, see how they contribute to the tone and sentiment of the poem itself. Consider what, in your life, contributes to you and your spiritual growth. Perhaps it is church or a religious community, or meditation time alone, or gardening. Whatever it is, how can you deepen it? What do you need to let go of (thoughts, obligations) in order to maintain and nurture your connection with God?
Poetic Form(s): Ode & Haiku
I mentioned last week that we will look at Sonnets this week. And we will. But I want the focus to be on the Ode and Haiku as both fit perfectly with this week's closing theme. I leave you with information and a worksheet for he Sonnet, which is a wonderful poetic tool, to work on in the coming weeks, if you don't get to it this week.
First, the definitions (poets.org):
“Ode” comes from the Greek aeidein, meaning to sing or chant, and belongs to the long and varied tradition of lyric poetry. Originally accompanied by music and dance, and later reserved by the Romantic poets to convey their strongest sentiments, the ode can be generalized as a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present.
A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Often focusing on images from nature, haiku emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression. Haiku began in thirteenth-century Japan as the opening phrase of renga, an oral poem, generally 100 stanzas long, which was also composed syllabically. The much shorter haiku broke away from renga in the sixteenth-century,
I chose the Ode and Haiku for this week because as you look at where you've come in the four weeks (reflect on your God Timeline that you did Week 1, your journal entries, your poems) the Ode allows a unique way to pay tribute and the Haiku is a short poetic form that brings in nature. These two forms bring us full circle (Pastoral vs Haiku, Timeline vs Ode) and a straight-forward container for reflection.
The Sonnet, a form or rhyme, is another wonderful poetic form that can pay tribute to your own rhythm with God. You can find more here.
Poetry
(Poems can be downloaded by clicking here. Audio is below).
"Ode to the Unbroken World, Which Is Coming," byThomas Lux
"Miracle Glass Co.," by Charles Simic
Haiku by Buson, Taigi & soji