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To support the development of this site and the work of soul friendship you are invited to express your appreciation through the spiritual practice of Dana

Radiant Poem

Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne'er succeed.

To comprehend a nectar

Requires sorest need  

- Emily Dickinson

Read Emily Dickinson's Complete Poetry

 The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

RADIANT SONG

 Five Summer Songs on Poems of Emily Dickinson: The one that could repeat the summer day

Author project - Emily Dickinson Emerging Artists Giclee Poster Print by Nicole De Clerck, 8x10    

The Power of Poetry

 Beating Recession Depression

when chaos threatens

and ‘reliable institutions’ – like banks – fail

when anxiety beckons

and governments may – or may not – bail

when pensions promise penury

and questions our old age ease

when credit crunch causes injury

and debt will never again be a breeze

In what can we put our trust?

other than (maybe) Obama -

but then even Detroit has gone bust -

it’s all very wearing this drama

if you reckon God lives in the catacombs -

then our only recourse is to invest in poems

Poetry - the reading of it and the writing of it – is an activity some people practice regularly. Others turn to it at times of celebration or crisis. Perhaps someone close to you has been diagnosed with a life threatening disease? Or maybe you want a poem for a wedding reception speech? We often look for poems when preparing a funeral or memorial service. These are all ‘threshold’ events and it is no surprise that we reach for poetry to seek out the eternal verities.

It has struck me that before our post-modern era of virtual money – when money on the stock market literally became no more than a vibrational pulse or thought form – people invested in precious but portable items. They bought gold coins or jewellery to hang around their wife’s neck and wrists. They snuck over borders with diamonds hidden in their Cuban heels.  They bought art that could be sold or stored until the historical tumult passed. However, I think that the reality of the Holocaust revealed just how fragile are even these strategies.

So what can we invest in that will help us ride out the bad times and companion us when we are already buoyant, even ebullient?

It strikes me as ironic that in a culture that has given them little economic reward that the time for poets has arrived.  For poetry has its own reward.

Consider the experience of Russian poet Osip Mandelstam. He ‘wrote’ most of his poetry in his head, reciting it so as to commit it to memory because he did not necessarily have access to pen and paper.  This was because he was creating poetry while he was a prisoner in a Siberian gulag. In this toughest of personal and spiritual landscapes his fellow prisoners helped him to survive because his own contribution to prison life was poetry. With poetry they had more than a chance of survival. They had a moment of being, of life, while their circumstances were outwardly bleak and even hopeless.

Maybe you have just lost your job. Perhaps your home is threatened with repossession. You may be on the brink of being declared bankrupt.  But you are free to read poetry. You are free to write poetry. Poetry will nourish your soul when you feel as if your life is in free fall.

If you do not have enough money to buy a poetry anthology, then visit your nearest public library. Find the literature section and pick a poetry book from the shelf.  If you have not the membership fee I do not think the librarian will mind if you find a seat and sit and read a poem quietly to yourself.  If you have the ability to memorize it then when you go outside the quiet of the library you can say the poet’s words out loud, for most poetry is intended to live beyond the printed page. It needs to let out its music and be sung by the human voice. And anyone can carry a poem’s tune.

If you are led to write poetry you may find comfort in the structure of a villanelle, sonnet or sestina. The poem that leads this article is based on the Elizabethan sonnet form, although I have taken some liberties with the tradition.  Following a structure can be a very steadying act. But there is also free or open verse. You may one moment be filled with joy as words alliterate as they tumble from your consciousness onto a blank piece of paper. All forms are available to fulfill the function of communicating meaning.

You can join creative writing groups or find classes.  You can find a poetry book group in your locality.  Most of these groups are free or very low cost, perhaps no more than a cup of tea or coffee if you meet in a local café.

In these groups you will meet fellow humans and potential soul friends. (As an aside, I confess that I met my soul friend and life partner at the Hackney Poetry Circle in the Dalston Junction Library in London in 1980.)

Each of you will be making a sure investment in the most portable of treasures with poetry.

© Bee Smith 2009

Another Soul Friend

"click on graphic below"

John O'Donohue is a man of the soul.  His scholarly meditation on the continuing relevance of Ireland's spiritual heritage has become a publishing phenomenon....  This poetic meditation has become a best seller on both sides of the Atlantic......  A lyrical epic prayer

The Times

From Review of Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom