TO LIVE LIKE THE POET
The soul speaks the language of symbol, imagery, metaphor, dreams, intuitive insight, and understanding. It is a language of the heart that can only be learned when the heart is open and willing to be vulnerable. To live like the poet is to live in sync with the soul’s needs, understand its language and respond to its call.
To live a poetic life, it is not necessary to be a poet in the conventional sense but to understand how the poet sees and experiences his or her reality. Dance around the kitchen can be a poem, a child’s laugh can be a poem, coffee with friends can be a poem, and anything that celebrates life can be a poetic experience. To live the poetic experience means to rub away the condensation from the windows of our perception so that we see the beauty of life with more depth and clarity. If you have ever had cataract surgery, you will know how the world is suddenly alive again with clarity and vibrant color when the cloudy lens has been removed.
The poet is one who delves deeply under the skin of life and brings the experience to light. She writes in the same way that a flower opens its petals to the sun and sends forth its fragrance into the air as a pure gift. The fragrance just is and does not depend on its value on the attitude, likes, or dislikes of those who receive it. It is an act of the generous creativity of the universe. The poet cannot withhold his vision any more than the flower can withhold its fragrance.
Living a poetic life in sync with the soul’s needs does not guarantee freedom from pain and struggle, for like all artists, the poet must take the risk of entering into the full experience of life, the light, and the darkness. Commitment to the call of the soul is not for the faint of heart, for it will demand much of us, as does every creative act. All human beings share in the creative energy of the universe, and the soul longs for its expression. She calls incessantly, urging us to create with beauty and compassion our great Opus, our greatest work of art, namely our own lives.
