Introduction to the Week 2 Lesson
In our second week, we are diving deeper into our look at poetry as spiritual practice and our own spiritual relationship with the Divine. We will ponder questions such as, "But how can poetry be used as a tool for divine exploration and expression? " "How does one become more real in their relationship with God?"
Often spiritual development is tied to authenticity. Our goal this week is to examine emotions that keep us spiritual stuck and what you need to forgive (in yourself and others) to move forward. Here's a great poem that centers on the theme to open with.
So often we shy away from guilt and shame. We easily feel it but do not let it go as easily. Poetry writing helps us to release the burden of that which can weigh us down. This week's lesson is to help us identify the emotions and speak to them, all examples of poetry as spiritual practice.
Poetic Form(s): Epistle
Epistolary poems, from the Latin “epistula” for “letter," are, quite literally, poems that read as letters. As poems of direct address, they can be intimate and colloquial or formal and measured. This is counter to epistles that assume the more recognizable conventions of a letter, complete with a traditional opening address, such as Langston Hughes’s “Letter," which begins: “Dear Mama / Time I pay rent and get my food / and laundry I don’t have much left / but here is five dollars for you.” Many contemporary poets have introduced this form into their works: Mark Jarman’s collection, Epistles explores religious faith and doubt.
A pantoum is a Malaysian verse form adapted by French poets and occasionally imitated in English. It comprises a series of quatrains, with the second and fourth lines of each quatrain repeated as the first and third lines of the next. The second and fourth lines of the final stanza repeat the first and third lines of the first stanza. See A.E. Stallings’s “Another Lullaby for Insomniacs.”
(taken from Poets.org)
Poetry
(Click here to download the poems. The audio is below.)
In our second week, we are diving deeper into our look at poetry as spiritual practice and our own spiritual relationship with the Divine. We will ponder questions such as, "But how can poetry be used as a tool for divine exploration and expression? " "How does one become more real in their relationship with God?"
Often spiritual development is tied to authenticity. Our goal this week is to examine emotions that keep us spiritual stuck and what you need to forgive (in yourself and others) to move forward. Here's a great poem that centers on the theme to open with.
So often we shy away from guilt and shame. We easily feel it but do not let it go as easily. Poetry writing helps us to release the burden of that which can weigh us down. This week's lesson is to help us identify the emotions and speak to them, all examples of poetry as spiritual practice.
Poetic Form(s): Epistle
Epistolary poems, from the Latin “epistula” for “letter," are, quite literally, poems that read as letters. As poems of direct address, they can be intimate and colloquial or formal and measured. This is counter to epistles that assume the more recognizable conventions of a letter, complete with a traditional opening address, such as Langston Hughes’s “Letter," which begins: “Dear Mama / Time I pay rent and get my food / and laundry I don’t have much left / but here is five dollars for you.” Many contemporary poets have introduced this form into their works: Mark Jarman’s collection, Epistles explores religious faith and doubt.
A pantoum is a Malaysian verse form adapted by French poets and occasionally imitated in English. It comprises a series of quatrains, with the second and fourth lines of each quatrain repeated as the first and third lines of the next. The second and fourth lines of the final stanza repeat the first and third lines of the first stanza. See A.E. Stallings’s “Another Lullaby for Insomniacs.”
(taken from Poets.org)
Poetry
(Click here to download the poems. The audio is below.)
- "Frame, an Epistle," by Claudia Emerson
- "Dear Michael (25)," by Mark McMorris