Religion and Poetry

[Walden]

But it seems that not everyone is on the mailing list.

"The wind bloweth where it listeth."

Sounds like poetry.

Poetry can be nice.

There was an old man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
His daughter named Nan
Ran away with a man.
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

[Tyghress]

A missing option: I am not religious. I like poetry.

I used to 'write poetry', but found that others did it infinitely better than I, and my time was better spent reading.

[Darwin]

A missing option: I am not religious. I like poetry.

I figured "... I read poetry, but don't write it." would be sufficient to cover both the "like poetry" and "adore poetry" crowd.

I'm actually glad to see my original theory of a link between religious feelings and an appreciation of poetry falsified, as it saves me having to look for a mechanistic link.

I'm even more surprised, though, by the fact that the current figures (omitting the indecisive and the others) show twice as many non-religious (28) as religious (14)--by self-definition. Is it the notorious European contingent throwing things off?

[BigDavy]

Hi Darwin

As one of the European contingent, desperately trying to remember how he voted as there was no option that suited my particular sitiuation.

i.e. Religious likes to listen to spoken or sung poetry, can't be a***d reading or writing it.

what surprises me is that so few people have responded to this topic as it seems inoccuous compared to some.

David

[Wormdiet]

I'm with Emm in the "Spiitual but not religious" category.

I can appreciate some poetry but I rarely go out of my way to encounter it. Most of the verse I've read and impacted me was in the context of German literatue classes from high school to grad school. I remember enjoying the German romantics a great deal.

[mamakash]

Poetry comes to me at breakfast, waiting for my tea to steep and listening to the "Wild Birds Unlimited" commercial, a three second shot of birds and music box tinkle. I love the store, just can't figure out that tune! It derserved a poem. I frequently sing it throughout the day.

Did you know that "disorder" rhymes with "recorder"?

[dubhlinn]

Religious folk make time in their day to pray, or do some religious stuff.

Poetry lovers have that same routine in their own day.

A time to pause and reflect, to breathe and mingle with Muses, a time to stop the world..briefly.

The moments spent eyes down in a good book are almost...a religious experience.

I'm not religious but I do like a good poem.

Slan,
D.

[JS]

D. has it right and says it well. Poetry, writing it and reading it, has much more to do with self-reflection than with self-expression, I think. There's a kind of distance of perspective -- as the idea of the sacred in religion makes it possible to see the self outside of the details and immediate demands of life, there's something in the artfully made language of a poem that takes you out of the self towards some shared understanding, then moves you back to where you were sitting, just not quite in the same place.

[Darwin]

Hi Darwin

As one of the European contingent, desperately trying to remember how he voted as there was no option that suited my particular sitiuation.

i.e. Religious likes to listen to spoken or sung poetry, can't be a***d reading or writing it.

So, maybe the distinction should have been "produce poetry" vs. "consume, but do not produce poetry"?

what surprises me is that so few people have responded to this topic as it seems inoccuous compared to some.

My mistake. I tried to keep it inoffensive and probably succeeded too well.

[Walden]

I'm even more surprised, though, by the fact that the current figures (omitting the indecisive and the others) show twice as many non-religious (28) as religious (14)--by self-definition. Is it the notorious European contingent throwing things off?

Some could also be religious people who are so religious that they would deny being religious because "it isn't religion it's real" or some such semantics like that.

[Flyingcursor]

He' cruisin' for a bruisin'.

Let us not judge hastily...his innocence is admirable, his taste dubious...but a fine sense of the absurd.

Slan,
D.

That's such a nice thing to say.