As the holidays approach in a down economy, many people
are seeking alternatives the typical holiday spending frenzy. The good news
about hard times is that they challenge us to find creative new ways to give,
share and create meaning. Poetry can be a powerful instrument for conjuring
such alchemies.
Poetry can’t change our bank statements, but it can change
the way we think about wealth and prosperity. It’s important that we understand
that income is one thing, and prosperity is frequently something else.
For example, a few years ago, I heard Mary Oliver speak. She
reported that a critic of her poetry complained that she must be independently
wealthy to have so much time to lie around in the grass and ponder nature. This
made the poet laugh, because the critic was reporting in an underhanded and
confused way about a truth that Oliver tapped into long ago: the act of lying
in the grass and listening to the world IS wealth.
The truth is, we don’t need to go anywhere special to tune
in to poetry. Our lives are already inundated with sensory information that is
the raw material of poems. All we need to do is slow down, pay attention and
write down what moves us, intrigues us or stirs our curiosity. This does not
require an inheritance or a 401K. It simply requires a willingness to welcome
the abundance that is already ours, and to follow the golden thread of language
wherever it leads us.
What poetry can give us is something far more valuable than
money could ever buy – it gives us ourselves. Poem by poem, we write our souls
into existence. Weighted in words, the spirit that animates us becomes
palpable. By the same token, each poem we read offers a small window into the
human condition, in which we may better recognize some glimmer of our own being.
Egg nog, move over. Rudolph, there’s another light guiding
our sleigh tonight! I’ve never experienced any holiday cheer that rivals the
state of grace that poetry invites into our lives. In fact, I often give poems
as holiday gifts. I print them on pretty paper, place them in an attractive
frame and presto – the most treasured holiday gifts I’ve ever given only cost
me the time I spent creating them.
Try it! You just might get hooked.
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This is the first column in the December Writing the Life Poetic zine. View the entire issue and past issues in the WTLP zine archive.




