Here’s to the Makers & Shapers
Poets Transmit Experience, Meaning, Culture, Values, and History
Art is central to our lives, to culture, to the health and happiness of individuals and entire societies. Art is central to what matters, to comfort in our own skin, to who we are as a people, and to what it is to be human.
Art is communication — a universal method beyond language that connects people across time, custom, and geographical location. Art is a connector, an agitator, a question-asker. Art is commentary that can be sophisticated or raw, refreshing or tense, subtle or vivid, gripping or ho-hum. Artists are the doers that transfer ideas, vision, and message into creative works. The term Artist is incredibly broad and with good reason. We’re all artists. We are all naturally creative makers and shapers. Some of us pursue and create art professionally and some do not. The fact remains however — we are all intrinsically artistic beings that gravitate to and thrive within the realm of creative endeavor. IOW if you’re alive, you’re an artist.
The Poet as Maker & Shaper
From the Greek verb ποιεω/poiéo, “to create”comes the English word Poet (the creator — the one who creates), the word Poesy (the act of creation), and the word Poem (the created). The concept of poets as admired creators is common across cultures — terms for poet in diverse languages including Japanese, French, Arabic, Swahili, Russian and Hindi among others, include references to dignified makers and shapers. The purposeful crafting of words predates the major religions of the world and is common to all societies. There is no society without art, and there is no society without poets and poetry. Poetry is a pillar of human civilization.
Poets use language and the aesthetic qualities of rhythm, sound, contour, and form, in addition to the semantic content of specific words, as tools to paint and communicate. Poetry transmits knowledge, and shapes attitude, action, and culture. Poetry shapes the human being.
Three thoughts:
- The Perfect Client: If you don’t think art or poetry is for you, you might very well be Poetry’s perfect client.
- Easy ways to find great work: Poetry Soup and HubPages provide annual lists of world poets and works of note. Nobel Prize winners in Literature/Poetry are available at nobelprize.org, and winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry are available at pulitzer.org.
- Find or Write, then Revisit Often: Finally, a wonderful way to learn about and engage with poetry is to find or write a verse, a sentence, or a piece of poetry that means something to you. Once you have it, refer to it often.
Below, Emily Dickinson’s centering and lovely Hope is a Thing With Feathers.
Dickinson, a Massachusetts native born in 1830, was known for unconventional wordplay and abruptly breaking lines and phrases. Although she was a prolific poet who penned over 1800 works, Dickinson was not publicly recognized during her lifetime. Over the course of Dickinson’s 56 years, she traveled outside her small town of Amherst just three times, and rarely left even her home. The first volume of her work was published posthumously in 1890.
Hope is a Thing With Feathers — Emily Dickinson, opus 234
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Art, poetry, and the purposeful crafting of words predates written history, all major religions of the world, and the beginnings of modern society. Take a look, partake, enjoy and be moved by the pillar of civilization that is poetry, the shaper of attitude, action, culture, and most importantly, the human being.
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