Genuine Poetry

Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.
-T.S. Eliot (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/poetry)


Poetry is amazing!  No...I am not saying 'my' poetry is amazing... I try not to judge my poems. And I am definitely not being gratified by praise lol. I have not received any positive feedback on the poems I have supposedly written to date...and I have written many! If anything...feedback has been negative.  That is not what is important.  Poetry itself in its ability to communicate before it is understood is amazing whether it is deemed as good or not.

When I say poetry is amazing, it is amazing because of where it comes from. It comes from a different place than the one where most of our minds operate.  It comes from the "being" place within all of us rather than the 'thinking' place or the ego place.  I don't think one can be operating on ego and write true poetry. 

Not about the Ego

I mean we do...we occasionally  write a poem on ego's direction, with the intention of being 'a poet'.  I have sent poems out and have found myself stung by rejection again and again.  I have read my poems to others to have them say, "What the f(ront door) does that mean?  What kind of drugs are you doing?"  Still we often write to feed the ego.  We tell ourselves after certain poems that seem to click with us for some inexplicable reason , "Oh that sounds good." and we send it off to see if someone else will like it, publish it, give us praise and recognition for it...but that is not what the form is for.  It really isn't about the ego. 

Messages from the true Self

 I finally realize, after decades writing it, that poetry is a medium where the true Self speaks to the writer  and hopefully can be heard by one or two others.  I think it is a teacher, a wise guru, an expert communicator, a psychic fortune teller, and a connecting force between illusion and reality  (it is the poem that speaks to the reality not the place from which it is read that is real). It is a channel to the true Self, to Being, to God. It reminds us that this place exists beneath thought, beneath ego, beneath this world that seems so real. It offers wisdom, hope, a way  when the rest of our minds cannot see or understand it, when we feel lost. Well that is what poetry is to me.  I see that now.

From Beyond the story and the ego, the poem speaks

I wrote those two poems from the previous posts at a very challenging time of my life.  I was lost in 'the story' of it all and felt like I was drowning in 'stress'.  I couldn't see beyond what ego was showing me. I had absolutely no idea the significance of those poems because I was not even aware then what waking up entailed.

I probably wrote more poems during that time in my life ( between 2011-2015) than I ever did.  I wasn't sure why.  I would just get this overwhelming feeling that I had to write one, that a 'poem was coming out of me' and I would sit down and within minutes the words would be on the page.  It was not thought out...at least the first version wasn't.  There was no time for that...it literally just came out in minutes...each poem I wrote. It was beyond thought.  It was simply inspired action. When I was done I would feel this overwhelming sense of 'relief' and completion. 

I would read each poem  back and sometimes I liked the way it sounded to my ear and the visions it created in my mind but I never, and I mean never really understood what it meant or what significance it had to my life.  I would often just put it away and forget about it.

That meaning always came later.  I would read the poem later (months or years after I wrote it) and feel this "Oh my God!  Yeah!  That's what that means.  Oh I see now what it was telling me, what it was teaching ." The message  was always very spiritual in some way or another even when I wasn't.

Being the Open Vessel

We often talk about the wise teacher within us all.  Poetry is that teacher! And anyone who writes it is a teaching vessel.  You do not need to know anything to do this...just to be open!! It is so cool what we can learn from it and it is an honor to be used by the true Poet within. There is no 'me' in this, no ownership and no room for ego.  Truly...poetry is simply a contract between universal intelligence and dream state. It is the true creative expression...whether it sucks or not. :) Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?  Who wouldn't want to learn from that?

So from now on, I am going to let the communicator speak and trust that there is some very valuable wisdom in the message that I will eventually understand.

I think that is so cool.

All is well in my world.