A Poet Persevering

“What is grief, if not love persevering?”

Poets across the nation sit at their writing desks, scratching out intricate rhyme schemes in leather-bound notebooks, or meter-less stanzas on scraps of paper. Words are erased and scribbled out with more fitting replacements, sometimes three or five or ten times. We strive to write something so real that it feels realer than reality—something that communicates truth so clearly, it strikes you in the chest and draws a gasp. We seek those lines that stop us in our own tracks, and we both love and envy those lines written by others. One such line, from an unlikely source, reads “What is grief, if not love persevering?” Ponder it. “What is grief, if not love persevering?”

The internet gasped collectively over this quote, all revering it as beautiful. It is not from a poem, but from the show “WandaVision.” Whatever the source, though, this line is poetic. It is beautiful, communicating a truth of the human experience in such a way that strikes you unexpectedly. It commands reflection. Few people would say this line is not beautifully written. For days, I could not open Twitter without encountering someone talking about this quote, either impressed by it or poking fun at every pastor who would find a way to incorporate it into their Sunday sermon. What does this say about us?
It struck me that such a poetic quote would be so universally loved. We do, in fact, love poetry. Many people love to hate poetry (though I would argue they may not have read good poetry). Many have not been exposed to it much outside of high school literature class or Valentine’s Day love poems. There is so much more to poetry than the color of roses or the dense words of Shakespeare.

Poetry is a type of literature meant to express emotions or ideas in all their true intensity. Often, rhyme and/or meter are used, but not always. Poetry is writing that is arranged for sound and written in a way that is specifically to make you feel, reflect, or think deeply.

There is poetry in the Bible. The psalms are poetry. They are written in stanzas, and they express the human condition. People go to them when they need to feel understood, because they are maybe the most deeply relatable of the scriptures. This is because the nature of good poetry is to capture a feeling for others to understand or relate to. People connect to the despairing soul who felt apart from God and wrote a psalm, because that psalm captures such emotions that they cannot put words to in the same way. The human soul craves poetry because it craves understanding. Poetry often makes us feel understood.

Poetry is also often a meager offering to God. Man has only the words of this earth to communicate what we think and feel. As hard as we may try, there are concepts and feelings so intense or so lofty that our human minds cannot craft the perfect stanza to capture it. Even the best poet has only the words that are. Even so, we use the words we have to make as beautiful a poem as we know how. Even though our words lack the power to speak things into existence or calm a raging sea, they may be able to calm a racing mind or a heart in turmoil. This is all we have to give. As an act of love, we labor over words in an attempt to make just one other person feel understood.

Clyde Kilby wrote, “Poetry makes the half man whole by saying the things which he feels but cannot say.” The poet is made whole in the expressing of those things in the only way he knows how, and the reader is made whole in the reading of those things he does not know how to say at all. From poet to reader, we help each other understand and be understood. It is a universal art.

Poetry is not irrelevant. It is still needed, despite suggestions that it may be an abandoned art. It still deeply affects us today, despite all the changes of cultures and generations. Beautiful words still have the power to take our breath away.
I was encouraged by people’s response to Vision’s words well-written, though maybe I should not have been surprised. A common feeling in well-arranged words got the attention it deserved--If only poetry called poetry got the same universal regard as poetry masked by television. It will take the perseverance of the poets and the reach of readers beyond the books of prose.

Poets, keep capturing the thoughts and feelings few have put words to, and keep in your striving to do it well. Offer your earthly words back to a God who used words to create the earth you reflect on. We writers are reflecting the image of God by doing what it was put in our nature to do.
Readers, do not shy away from poetry. You already encounter it often, but embrace it and seek it out. There are words that understand you, and there are poets who have written to you. Take the time to discover them. Take comfort in knowing that if a poet knows an experience intimately enough to craft a poem from it, you are not the only sufferer. Read and do not be lonely. Poetry will do your soul good.