One thing I have become a lot more appreciative of this year is poetry. Poetry, to me, is foremost about noticing — noticing places or feelings or an event, and asking what it could mean. This meaning isn’t fixed — sometimes when I reread a poem in a different life season, I’ll interpret it differently.
A poetry format that has helped me appreciate poetry better is the podcast Poetry Unbound, hosted by Irish poet-theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama. In 15-minute episodes, he reads a poem he has selected, unpacks it by bringing in details about the poet’s life, particular techniques used in the poem and their effect on its meaning, then reads it again. I am a poetry novice; having poetical techniques presented to me and hearing each poem aloud (in a soothing Irish accent) allows me to notice different meanings from if I’d read the poem on my own.
Reading poetry has helped me better perceive the small details in my daily life. The Nature of Things, edited by James Brown, is an anthology of poems, I received as a gift, about the New Zealand landscape. I have also appreciated individual Aotearoa poets such as Anna Jackson and enjoyed many of the poems in the Essential New Zealand Poems anthology. Reading well-crafted words about Otago Peninsula, the Matukituki Valley or the intricate lives of tree ferns allows me to recognise what these places mean for me. Seeing Aotearoa through another set of eyes gives me opportunity to think about these places and culture and my way of being in it.
Mary Oliver is a poet I have particularly appreciated in my times of sadness and struggle this year. Her poetry has a lovely rhythm about it; she starts with the world around her. Her poem "With Thanks to the Field Sparrow, Whose Voice is So Delicate and Humble" spoke to me recently.
I do not live happily or comfortably
With the cleverness of our times.
The talk is all about computers,
The news is all about bombs and blood.
This morning, in the fresh field,
I came upon a hidden nest.
It held four warm, speckled eggs.
I touched them.
Then went away softly,
Having felt something more wonderful
Than all the electricity of New York City.
What I like about Mary Oliver’s poems is that instead of dismissing the terrible things that happen in the world, they hold them along with beauty and joy. Choosing to notice goodness takes strength and skill. Oliver’s poetry encourages me to do the same.
The art of noticing via poetry helps me develop gratitude for myself and the world around me. I am also trying to use this as I read the Bible. Seeing the Psalms with a poet-reading lens rather than the-Bible-is-a-bit-unrelatable lens definitely benefits my biblical interpretation. It helps me to see the Psalms as poems and songs written by people long ago, who were trying to notice where God was in their anguish, struggle and joy. That’s about as relatable as you can get!
Poetry is an opportunity to notice. I use language every day — in talking and listening to friends, in composing emails, in texts and in writing reports. But when that language is transformed from the everyday to the rhythms and structure of a poem, it can alert me to the poetry of my everyday life. The language of poems can remind me that people and language have meaning throughout time; from psalm to sonnet to a pop song on the radio.
Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 277 December 2022: 26