- Silvano Bortolazzi
From time immemorial, poetry has been a means for people to express their deepest emotions and create healing in ritual and ceremony. They communicate human emotions; it is the voice of the heart. It is the inner reality of all things and of ourselves. They give sound and rhythm to silence; to darkness giving it a shape, turning it to light. It is true prose can speak to the heart, but the ‘voice’ is not so direct. Poetry has an immediate effect. In short, poetry is a language within a language. Accordingly, St. Coleridge sees poetry as “The best words in the best order”.To sum up ‘The art of literature is poetry’ (Mathew Arnold) Poetic language is just the opposite of scientific language. It serves as a messenger between the two worlds to communicate between the gods and humanity. Poems have also been viewed as carriers of messages from the unconscious to the conscious mind. They act like a good friend who understands, whose words are kind and comforting and give hope when no one else is around, a hand to hold, a light in the darkness. It certainly brings in rays of hope and peace and a healing power. It shares one’s creative gift with others freely. “There are three things; after all, that a poem must reach; the eye, the ear, and what we may call the heart or the mind. It is most important to reach the heart of the reader. - Robert Frost. A young English writer and poet from Grahamstownaim to use his creative work (poetry) to heal deep social wounds and to bring about profound transformation. Another writer, Jim Morrison proclaims, “If my poetry aims to achieved anything, it’s to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel.Poems are not words, after all, but fire for the cold, ropes let down to the lost and bread in the pocket of the hungry. Today we live by our greatest poems- The Bible and the Koran, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita, Shakespeare and Dante etc. Hence, poetry has a central importance in the sense that the great holy works are all in a sensepoems. It has the potential of moving a person’s soul (maybe then, poetry could move the world!).That’s what poetry does.“Poetry has always been the language of the soul. At its most beautiful it mirrors the joy, the glory and the peace that the soul of a man can fathom. At its darkest, at its most barren it proclaims the desolation of the soul. I cannot tell the story of Nagaland and the conflict that has been her lot in prose. For the story of Nagaland is the story of the Naga soul on a long, lone. lonely journey of pain, loss and bereavement, a silent holocaust in which worlds seldom were enough to carry the burden of being born a Naga. Therefore, I shall use poems to tell the Naga story”. -EasterineIralu (A prolific Naga writer) Poetry is for all ages and for all age groups. It’s a universal language understood by every living soul. They are truly a divine language that lives in the world much like the language of music which is universal. To live life to the fullest one has to live a creative life which is the best way to engage oneself with the beauty of the everyday life. God can be seen here as a divine poet, the master creator and if we do not live out the time imaginatively, we cannot live in itactually. There has always been an electric fire in human soul, tending to purify- so that among these human creatures there is continually some birth of new heroism. The pity is that we must wonder at it as we should at finding a pearl in rubbish. There should always be in our life a guiding force, a mission, an ideal, a principle and sacrifice as ‘John Keats’ does, ‘Love is my religion- I could die for it.’And dwelling on faith, he utters, “heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter” Poetry as an art form many predate literacy. The earliest poetry is believed to have been recited or say employed as a way of remembering oral history, genealogyand law. Poetry is often closely related to musical traditions, and the earliest poetry exists in the form of hymns. Many of the poems surviving from the ancient world are recorded prayers, or stories about religious subjectmatter and they also include historical accounts, instructions for everyday activities, love songs and folklores. The purpose of poetry for most of human existence has been to enable the passing of stories between generations, so in its essence, poetry is a historical instrument. It has existed long before prose because the main, if not the only, way for people to communicate stories that would be remembered was to do it orally. It is much more difficult to remember and recite a story when it is written in prose and that’s where songs and poetry come into play. Epic tales, local heroes and heroines live, thanks to this form of communication. The rhythm, the structure, the rhyme scheme are elements of poetry that made it easier for the content to travel across space and time. Religions are poems. They concert our daylight and dreaming mind, our emotions, instant breath and native gesture into the only whole thinking - Poetry. Religious vitality is based on mystery and unknowability - Religion in its purest form is a vast work of poetry. Poetry is called religion when it intervenes in life, and religion when it merely supervenes upon life, is seen to be nothing but poetry. Beautiful poetry occurs in both the Testaments. Many scholars believe the song of Moses and the song of Miriam (Exod. 15:1-21), celebrating the destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the sea, is the oldest existing Hebrew hymn or poetic work, dating perhaps from the 12th centur b.c. Three of the greatest masterpieces of the Old Testament are the song of Deborah(Judges 5); David's lament over the death of Saul and Jonathan(11 Sam. 1: 1-27) and the burden of Nineveh (Nah.1: 1- 13 and Nah.3:1-19). Accordingly one-third of the Old Testament is written in poetry. Many scholars consider the Book of job to be not only the greatest poem in the Old Testament but also one of the greatest poems in all literature. Bible has full of numerous figures of speech such as metaphors and similes. For eg, the Psalmist metaphorically described God by saying, “The lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of any salvation, my stronghold” (Ps.18:2). Moses also gave this remarkable simile describing God’s care of Israel in wilderness:"As an eagle stirs up its nest/hovers over its young/spreading out its wings, taking them up/carrying them on its wings/so the lord alone led him.".(Deut.32:11-12).Such figures of speech are not to be interpreted literally but as poetic symbolism of God. He is the firm ground of life and a solid refuge against evil. The worshipper sings for joy because of His protecting presence and the soaring power of His loving care. In the New Testament, the gospel of Luke contains several long poems: Zacharia’s prophecy known as the Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79), the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-10) have a definite poetic form, the song of Mary, known as the magnificent (Luke. 1:46-55); the song of heavenly host, known as the Gloria in Excelsis(Luke 2:14) are all deeply rooted with poetic grandeur. Examples of poetic device in the New Testament is the use of parallelism (this is a construction of poetic line in which the content of one line is repeated, contrasted or advanced by the content of the next line- a type of sense rhythmcharacterized by thought arrangement rather than by word arrangement or rhyme). The three main types of parallelism in biblical poetry are synonymous, antithetic and synthetic. Example of synonymous parallelism (A parallel segment repeats an idea found in the previous segment.With this technique, line two restates the same thought found in line one by using equivalent expression) occurs in Matt. 7:6. “Do not give what is holy to the dogs, Nor cast your pearls before swine”. Antithetic parallelism (here the thought of the first line ismade clearer by contrast- by the opposition expressed in the second line) occurs in Matt. 8:20 “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head”. Synthetic parallelism (here the subsequent lines explains and reveals the first line) occurs in John. 6:32-33. “Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Who can deny the powerful poetic passion in Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “We are hard pressed on every side yet not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed”. (II Cor. 4:8-9) In conclusion, all we can say to this divine art form is that- Poetry speaks freely, openly, widely, musically, without fear, without prejudice, all out of love for humanity, out of caring, out of forgiveness, out of the need to share, to foster community, to revive, to re-establish, to reshape the worldthrough holistic healing. Today science has further proven that reading literature is good for the brain, and reading poetry may be best of all. Reading poetry stimulates that part of the brain that is similar of our resting states, such as when we sit and look out the window. Poetry can also increase our ability to be introspective, helping us to know and understand better. This self consciousness, I believehelps us to grow as matureindividuals as well.