The Most Important Thing You Will Ever Do

Pay attention. This is important. 

(source) 

I want to take a second to try and explain why writing poetry is not a colossal waste of time. There are, of course, many arguments to the contrary.  Poetry can seem a less than practical use of your time and effort. If you have devoted any significant amount to writing poetry, then the odds are pretty good someone has said you are wasting your time. Often poetry is not taken seriously, or at least not given the full respect it deserves.  When it is not being outright belittled, poetry is often seen as an amusing or entertaining enterprise, but one that is ultimately without greater purpose or value. It is treated flippantly and without awe. But I am here to tell you that poetry is not a flighty, angsty pursuit. It does not belong only to the diaries of teenagers with broken hearts. It is not a hobby and it does not exist solely as an emotion vent to help people feel better. Or feel clever. 

The best way I know how to say it is that poetry is what happens when we allow our emotions to participate in our philosophy.  It is simultaneously the most complex and the most fundamental method of expressing and examining our own state of being.  Nothing could be more practical. Nothing could be more deserving of your time. The essence of what I am trying to say is summarized perfectly in the film Dead Poets Society. In an effort to convince his students of the importance of poetry the main character, John Keating (Robin Williams), tells them this:

“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”

To use a rather tired expression: poetry is an eternal dialogue. Keating’s character refers to this dialogue as “the powerful play.” As poets, we hear what past generations have had to say and respond to it. This may seem like a small act, to read a poem and then write one of your own. But no poet exists in a vacuum. Even if some would prefer to. There is no such thing as an unaffected poet. We all effect each other’s work, directly or indirectly. Poetry is a community and a conversation. The instant you decide to take part in that conversation you become part of the greatest thing the human race has ever done. The most uninhibited. The most uncontaminated by pettiness and consumerism. The purest form of human existence. And you get eternal life to boot, did I mention that? When you lend your voice to poetry, your thoughts and emotions are preserved. They ripple through the hearts and minds and words of every poet who ever reads them. Even if it is just one person. Even if they hate your work. They are effected in some small way and their writing will never be exactly the same as it would have been. And they in turn effect whoever reads their poetry. 

To write is a violent act. It is to insist on your own existence in a world that otherwise couldn’t care less. At that moment you are immortal and invincible. You are the latest and most vibrant contributor to the eternal dialogue. Listen and respond. Your thought process, how you feel, and what you believe are all molded by the words you have read. That makes you, in a way, the child of poetry. Formed by it. Growing out of it until you begin to create it yourself. This is your chance to bellow back against your own mortality. Unafraid and uncontrolled. Scream into the howling winds. Scream, wild and willful. Scream, honest and uninhibited. Scream into the dying light, into the passing decades and centuries that rage around you. Scream and the world will take shape before you. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

So whenever you feel that writing is a less than wise use of your time, or if anyone ever tells you as much, remember what Percy Shelley said: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” Remember that the uninspired masses will never be what you can be and that, with any luck, centuries after your bones are dust, you will still be making people laugh and cry and smile. So, write poetry. And remember: be brave, be sincere, and have fun!

Read more posts by Padraic.

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