Religion as Poetry
Religion is poetry. I just spent a portion of my Friday afternoon speaking with some representatives from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Listening to them speak of how their god speaks to them, watching their eyes glow, it was lovely. Their’s is not my path, though I could almost enjoy it vicariously through their energy.
They discussed their faith and their encounter with it. The idea seemed abstract. You get it, or you do not. When it grabs you, it passes all other understanding and goes straight for the heart. They spoke in metaphor of passion and exhilaration and the planting of healthy seeds.
They handled their faith as though it were poetry. But they would not see themselves as writers or artists. It is just how they live, not something separate to be scribbled in a book or read through a microphone. The poetry is an external label. A name given to an abstraction.
I enjoy poetry, but they spoke in a prose unknown to me. I felt on the outside. Understanding that what they said was heartfelt, but going no further into meaning. I was no longer an artist myself, but a simple man wandering into a gallery. Yes that is nice art, but I do not know much about that. Their’s is a “high art” that I am too much the layperson to comprehend. I can only note that it is pretty.
The experience was a lovely one, to see three poets in their ties, out walking about. They gave me a little book, though it does no justice to the words and ideas they had shared with me. There is no parchment suitable to hold such things as they spoke.
I do not understand their poems,
though I know they do exist.
They do not call themselves poets,
though they know He does exist.
Yeah but, how come they’re pushing that poor guy’s head down?
And smiling about it too? I’m seein’ a red flag here….