Will You Be Mine?
Valentine, you make me silly;
You make my heart beat willy-nilly;
When I'm with you, the world is hazy;
Valentine, you drive me crazy!
Valentine, when we're apart,
My need for you goes off the chart.
Will you be mine? Can I be thine?
Say you'll be my Valentine!
By Joanna Fuchs
Valentine's Day was Tuesday and there was a lot of poetry written, quoted, and read. For all of us who are not gifted poets, we turned to Hallmark to say it for us. I will have to confess I am not a poetry fan. I find it difficult to follow, difficult to understand, and way too much work for 5 stanzas. That is why when I read this paragraph in Dancing to the Heartbeat of Redemption by Joy Sawyer I was flabbergasted.
“God chose to tell his story and the story of his people’s lives largely through poetry. Nearly two-thirds of the Bible is written in some poetic form of the Hebrew and Greek languages: the Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, and the books of the Prophets, Revelation. Even the highly structured, stringent laws and regulations of Leviticus contain poetry.”
Nearly two-thirds of the Bible is written in poetic form. I am not sure of the accuracy of the number two-thirds. Some sources say a lot and one source said one-third. Regardless of the specific number, they all agree that there is a large portion of the Bible that is poetry. I tried to dismiss the statement and move on, but I just could not get the idea out of my head that maybe I was missing out on a deeper relationship with Jesus by searching the Bible for knowledge, answers to life questions, for a moral compass, a path to encounter Christ, and on some level to fulfill a spiritual discipline, but never as poetry. Didn’t I just say I wasn’t a poetry fan?! I don’t know that I ever have sat down to read my Bible as a poet looking to discover love and be overcome with the emotion of what I have read. Poetry is meant to arouse emotions, and for the most part, that is something I have tried to avoid.
I will have to say that learning to read poetry is like learning a foreign language. It feels awkward, frustrating, and painfully slow. I definitely needed some help so I hopped on Google and landed on www.shmoop.com.
The first piece of advice was to follow my ears. It has been my experience in the past that I do not have a good ear for learning foreign languages, so who knows where following my ears for poetry might lead me. The next suggestion was to read with my heart and not my mind listening for the rhythm of the words. They suggest I do this while reading out loud. This already is getting weird for me. As I sit down with the word of God, I am to read slowly and not skip one word so that each word adds something to the overall experience of the verse. I will never make it through the Bible in one year at this pace. For me it is much easier to read a verse and then write out how it applies to my life. Does it instruct me how to live a holy life, point out sin that needs confessed, encourage me, challenge me, but how does it make me feel has never been on that list.
One of the reasons that so much of the Bible was written in poetic form is that it aids in memorization. The Word of God is meant to dwell within us and change us from the inside out. Once again I am faced with the idea that God desires transformation not my ability to recite spiritual laws.
Another point on this web site is that I read in crazy places like on the subway, on a mountaintop, or on a beach. They suggest that a change of scenery can effect how the words reverberate through my soul. I pretty much have my Bible reading time and place set. There aren’t any subways, mountains, or beaches anywhere close by, but I might get really crazy and try reading in a park, or sitting by a lake, or outside on a bench watching the sun go down. I wonder what it would feel like to read about the night of Christ's betrayal outside late at night?
One last thing I want to mention is the idea that I am to think like a poet. Are you kidding me?? Me a poet!?!?!? I am a conservative, practical, straight as the cornrows, Iowa girl. My poetic past pretty much consists of Roses are red and Violets are blue, but they want me to take one of David’s poems and read one line and then step into the poet’s role and come up with the next line. What would my next line to, "the Lord is my shepherd,” have been? David had options so why did he say, “I shall not want?” and how do I think David felt when he said that and how does it make me feel. Oy vey!
Learning something new is never easy and the beginning step is always the hardest. One of my favorite quotes is:
“One does not discover New Lands without consenting to lose sight of the Shore for a Very Long time.” Andre Gide
Reading the Bible as a poet is going to take me far from the safety and comfort of the shore I have known. I really hope all of you will come with me so we can share our discoveries. I am setting sail to become a poet and a lover of poetry. Maybe I am really a poet and just didn’t know it- we’ll see.
How I got here:
The Fire of the Word by Chris Webb
Dancing to the Heartbeat of Redemption by Joy Sawyer
Song of Solomon
www.ehow.com/how_2113188_read-poetry.html
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