Erring on the side of oddness

Marcus here. It’s been a long and busy week. Time to slow things down a bit with some poetry. Last week, L. L. Barkat asked people to consider, “What is poetry?”

This is a completely appropriate question because it is (drum roll)

N A T I O N A L   P O E T R Y   M O N T H !

Let’s think about definitions for just a minute, shall we? In 1798, Wordsworth and Coleridge said poetry “emotion recollected in tranquility.” That’s a pretty Romantic definition, but I like it. I also like what Sir Phillip Sidney said two centuries earlier. He said the purpose of poetry (or any great writing) is to teach and delight. Emily Dickinson said poetry was a chance to “tell all the truth but tell it slant.” Macbeth (and Shakespeare) warned that poetry could be chaos in the wrong hands, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” OK, Macbeth was really talking about all of life, but it applies to poetry. In Paracelsus, Robert Browning said, “God is the perfect poet, / Who in his person acts his own creations.” Yeah.

Then there is my man, Gerard Manley Hopkins. This paragraph may be a bit academic, but I’m sharing it anyway. Just over 100 years ago, Hopkins wrote, “…design, pattern, or what I am in the habit of calling inscape is what I above all aim at in poetry. Now it is the virtue of design, pattern, or inscape to be distinctive and it is the vice of distinctiveness to become queer.” I could definitely agree with Hopkins that, “No doubt my poetry errs on the side of oddness.” But then, I preordered Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. (Shipped yesterday! Whoo hoo!)

With poetry—or any kind of meditation and reflection—we get a chance to examine our life and our work. Does it signify something? Does it point in the right direction? Or are we just another voice in the void, increasing the gap between signal and noise, spreading the zombie disease of mindlessness, promoting ourselves without listening to anyone else?

When the noise and self-obsession and mindlessness gets too loud, we should remember what Laure said this week at uncommon ordinary. She’s got the featured poem this week:

once upon a time
a present wonder
disarmed you like that
moment you first heard
the language of flowers.

We talk about poetry because the form is inherently disarming. We need to be disarmed. The workplace is hostile enough. Life isn’t war. And communities aren’t platoons.

Quite the opposite, community is shared vulnerability. Online community, like any community, depends on two-way communication. These poetry Fridays are just one tool we use to provide some structure to the way we listen to each other around here.

You know the easiest way to listen online, right? Leave comments.

In fact, I have a question for you to celebrate National Poetry Month. Two questions I ask anyone who calls themselves a poet:

Who is your favorite poet? What was the last book (or journal or ezine) of poetry that you read?

Poetry stuff around the network:

• Liar by The Unknown Contributor
• culmination amina by Eric of Journey of Words
• just read the whole week of poetry that Laure posted at uncommon ordinary
• Being Poetry by Ann Voskamp at holy experience
• Galaxies dance by JoAnn of The Heavens Declare
• Spring Snow by Erica Hale of These Three Remain
• poein by nAncY of nancnote
• a whole list of great poems at Seedlings in Stone
• a list of my favorite poets at GoodWordEditing.com
• speedometer by Monica at MyBigThree
• Await the Now by Joelle of Alivening
• John Goode’s My God on video at Waynes’ deepwaterwalk.com
• Ars Poetica #100: I Believe by Elizabeth Alexander, reprinted by LaurieLH
• To Dorothy by Marvin Bell, reprinted by Steve McCoy at Reformissionary
• My Dark Night Horses by bkmackenzie of Soul Intention
• John Donne at Michael’s In-Formatio
• Life is Poetry by Laura of The Wellblog
• What is poetry? by L. L. Barkat of Seedlings in Stone
• Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins (not really part of our network, but a MUST READ)
• It is Done by Yvette Massey of A Journey Through His Garden
• friend of the network The Kindlings Muse Podcast is talking about the poetry of Bob Dylan and Sufjan Stevens.
• Awakening to Silence by Cindy Hanson of cindyhan111
• Sarah’s In tenderness…
• OK, these lists are getting long. I might have to pick my top three next week or something.
• Special Thanks to Roger B. who took the image of the Hopkins quote outside the Scottish Parliament building, Edinburgh. Here is the original picture by Roger B.
• ALSO, next week’s poetry prompt from L. L. Barkat: Let’s try If words were… [choose an object: chocolate, soda cans, envelopes, a pillow, whatever!]. What would you do to or with the words? Or what would they do to you or someone else? Give us sights, sounds, fragrance, textures, tastes. Post your offering by Thursday evening, April 9, for possible feature and definite links here at HighCallingBlogs.com. Drop L.L. a comment and your link URL at this post.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 8 poets for National Poety Month (goodwordediting.com)
• National Poetry Month: An Introduction (themillions.com)
• April is National Poetry Month! (takepart.com)
• Wet and Wildness (Roger B.’s original image of the Hopkins inscription)
• Note from Marcus: If you register with Zemanta, we can start getting more network posts to show up here by adding each other’s posts at the bottom. It’s a crowd sourcing thing.

And don’t forget, we want to know (in the comments below):

Who is your favorite poet? and/or What was the last book (or journal or ezine) of poetry that you read?

Tagged as: Arts, Bob Dylan, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Literature, National Poetry Month, Online Writing, Robert Browning