Poetry

We're in the midst of our poetry unit in Imaginative Writing. I didn't realize until this semester that I was not really a fan of poetry, and, of course, as soon as I said that out loud, everyone I knew tried to convince me that I should love it.  It isn't that I'm against the art form. In fact, I've had to delve pretty deep into poetry over the last couple of weeks and have found many of lovely poems to experience and live inside. People in my class have found favorite poems that I might never have found and recited them to our class. I am grateful to them for their efforts, even if they were unaware, to help me like poetry once more, if, and that is a big if, I ever did.

Today, however, was different. Today I had to write my own poetry and begin that creative process anew. I had to take an art form, one that I have, unfortunately, discounted quite often, and proceed into it's deep waters. I must choose my words carefully, knowing that my respected professor will read it, craving meaning and affirmation rather than (or perhaps in addition to) a good grade.

I picked a theme last night. We have to turn in 3-5 short poems and I am going to write one for each of "The Four Loves" that C.S. Lewis (or Jack, as I like to call him) wrote about in his book of the same title. I'm going to concentrate on one relationship from my own life for each (first time in my life that I have had a relationship in all of his categories!) and I am going to relate each one back to a Biblical story or example by putting a verse at the beginning.

I have been accused of being too vague. Perhaps this will help.

All of the sudden, I'm very excited about this project. I want to write this and to craft this, not just sit down and write it like a masked journal entry, or a letter. If you like, I'll share these secret poems with you, and all of the meaning behind them.

Like I said, I like to be vague, so I am making a compromise. I'm putting the quotations (Bible verses) before these poems in order for people to grasp that significance. I am hoping that they will have no problem grasping the obvious significance (you never can tell) and the titles should help a little as well. However, I am keeping the fact that these four poems are unified by "The Four Loves" to myself, and, I guess, to you. Feel special. I like to have depth that people would never guess at.