Why we need poetry.

"If you write for everybody, you write for no one.

So I write for my friends." 

"Keep Forgiving", Levi the Poet

....

We're distracted. 

It's doesn't take someone highly self-aware to own up to this. 

I think as a modern society we certainly realize that the negative of our technological advances are that they are no longer compartmentalized. 

Instead, we carry them everywhere and forget we have the option to turn them off, let the battery die, or leave them at home, etc. It's no longer land lines that we only check when we get home from work or dial up we only log on to when we need to do something specific - it's invasive. Often, it's hard to find moderation in our interactions with technology. 

A lot of it makes sense. Technology offers us many advances, tons of information, and such an ability for us to learn more than we've ever had the opportunity to. Please don't hear that technology itself is bad or even that it's to blame for our lack of presence. Our lack of being able to walk away from it is the problem. Our attachment, sometimes subtle addiction to incessant updates has created in us not only the inability to connect fully, but it has also stopped us from sitting in our emotions, thoughts, and articulating what we believe.

Now whether or not the "8 second" attention span is legitimately backed up by research or not - you might check the last long form article you read. You might also notice that modern writing is grouped by 3 or 4 sentences. Maybe you've endlessly analyzed, "This Is America," by Childish Gambino and you feel how quickly national attention can be shifted from one tragedy of social injustice to random distraction back to another tragedy within only a snap of time.  Perhaps you may even notice the way videos have taken over social media platforms within the last few years. Maybe it's all coincidence.

I'm betting it's not.

....

Poetry. Hip-hop. Spoken word. 

Whatever form you take it in - descriptive language is vital to the human experience. It provides an opportunity for empathy, a catharsis for the poet, and encourages social change and contemplation.

This art form is fading. Now everyone can create and produce. Now computers can think for us instead of aid us. Now a beat is all it takes to get radio play.

But words matter more.

Poetry matters more.

Words are what people need to hear.

....

I'm late to the party and just now heard Levi the Poet.

But I'm so thankful the timeliness in which I heard his new album, Cataracts. 

It's no secret if you've read any of my blog posts within the past couple of years that I've been grappling with what to do with writing. As I listened to this album, I began to remember the important thing of sitting down and sorting through my thoughts with a pen.

It's a beautiful thing to take our initial thoughts and challenge them, temper them, and formulate them into belief. Sometimes this looks like a series of questions, sometimes it's an autobiography, and other times it's a blend of commentary, hope, and despair. 

One thing is for sure: each word is owned, each word is weighed. 

Nothing is flippant or insipid because to write your thoughts down is to think about them. Even more they are given life. They are no longer swirling around in your head - they now have to potential to be seen, heard, and felt - sometimes totally understood by another person. Because of this, we must be gentle, honest, and sparing. Our thoughts and words are just that - our own and upon writing them we are allowed freedom, but must not forget another heart may engage with them. That other heart may be miles away, come from a totally different context, or be down the street and out of our sight. 

We need poetry to make us good story tellers.

We also need it so we are good at listening to stories. 

To look at ourselves, the world, and how we connect with it is no small task, but it is incredibly important. Poetry is where we can be truthful. Poetry is where we can be kind. Poetry is where we can take notice. Poetry is where we can look away from the distractions. Poetry is where we can change. 

Words are the children of action.

And they grow up.

How will we raise them?

With contempt, with carelessness?

Quickly, with all freedom?

Or with care, with compassion?

Patiently, with rhythm?

Our task is this: to raise up and nurture our words into compelling actions.

....

"So where is the lullaby that our doctrine sang? 

Where is the house on the rock when even the rock couldn't withstand the rain? What does it mean, you who uses spit to clean the eyes of blind men suddenly guilty for all that they have claimed to see? 

It's not that I don't believe. 

It's just that sometimes faith feels more like cataracts than clarity. 

Please go gentle on me."

"The Dark Night of the Soul", Levi the Poet

https://youtu.be/fsx5PMiBJG0