Today I’d like to talk about what poetry and writing does for us…why read it, why write.

“Poetry is old and it is a community ritual” Mary Oliver shared on a recent interview on Square Space:

https://m.soundcloud.com/onbeing/mary-oliver-listening-to-the-world?in=onbeing/sets/mary-oliver-listening-to-the

And in this column certainly we have seen that, from our ancient Chinese poets to Rumi who is a 13th Century Persian poet and Sufi mystic; if anything more popular in more countries today than when he wrote and lived. The importance of the internationality of the community ritual could not be more critical to us today.

We are in a world shrinking at an alarming rate…poetry is a bridge across.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.”

Spoken by Mary Oliver from her poem Wild Geese during this interview–

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Really this poem says it all. It simplifies for the child within us the overwhelming reality of the modern world and gives a peace, a road map for a way forward. And in so doing the brutality and senselessness that assaults us daily can be brought into a manageable perspective so that we do not contribute to that chaos.

I encourage us all once again to express what we know, in writing…Mary continued to share in the interview about how many poems she throws away…can you imagine…makes her rather an ordinary girl and so speaks to our ordinary selves.

And if not writing, sing, dance and above all else, read, read, read.

Join us won’t you for our on-line writers group at:

m.diane.writeon@gmail.com