The Soul of a Poet

James Dickey said that a poet is “someone who notices and is enormously taken by things that somebody else would walk by.”

In her book, The Art of the Soul, Joy Sawyer expands this idea.

“A main component of a poet’s work is to highlight a common, ordinary detail so that we might see it through new eyes, hear it through new ears. Thus, the poet’s senses are at work at all times, absorbing shades of periwinkle, nuances of marble shine, fragrances of juniper and jasmine, tender glances across a living room.”

To me, a good friendship is poetry. Friends listen to each other and to God.  Each finds herself “enormously taken by things that somebody else would walk by” and helps her friend see circumstances through new eyes and hear them through new ears.

God created me with the soul of a poet.  I believe that this is a sliver of His image in me. Ephesians 2 says that we are God’s “workmanship”. The word can be translated “poetry”. It goes on to say that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. We are God’s poetry, and we are sent into the world as apprentice poets!

I want to live my life like a poem God is writing. In turn, I want to be a part of the process as God creates beautiful poetry in the lives of the people around me.