by Michele Langlo

Created on: August 29, 2009

T.S. Eliot once wrote, "Poetry may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves."

I cannot help myself but to agree with Mr. Eliot, particularly on the last part of his quote... "for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves."

Whether it is through self-denial or the denial of another, how much time do we spend avoiding the penetration and exploration of the soul? We don't want to look that deep within ourselves, it is too exhausting and/or too disturbing to do that kind of intensive and comprehensive self-examination. And if we don't wish to see it ourselves then how much less do we wish those deep, dark abysses to be discovered and scrutinized by another human being? But the fundamental nature of poetry is to shred the cloak of the heart.

Evidence that poetry comes from the heart exists in every good poem, all of which are wrought with emotion and feelings. Poetry could well be defined as written form of unbridled passion which makes us swoon, blush, ache, sob, sweat bullets and shoot steam out our ears when it is read.

When it is written poetry possesses the ability to strip every pretense by which we attempt to deceive others and ourselves, and to destroy every faade behind which we attempt to hide.

The essence of most other forms of writing can for the most part be reduced to the stating of facts, explanation, definition and questions and answers, all elements learned through the education, research, experimentation and trial and error to which we have been both privileged and predisposed. However, the quintessential presence in poetry is love, joy, hope, fear, sadness, anger and grace in their most rudimentary forms; all instinctive and all engrained.

I believe it could be surmised that poetry is a divinely predestined response to a human's unanticipated outcome of an event; or more simply put, poetry is an expression of God's pre-programming... not ours.

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