Enhance Your Spiritual Practice with Poetry

April is National Poetry Month, and I've always recommended a poetry practice to enrich one's spiritual practice. Why write poetry?

--Many of our sacred texts are written in a variety of poetic forms. Experimenting with writing poetry of our own can enhance our appreciation of the poetry of these texts.

--Much of the teaching of Jesus comes to us as something ambiguous, like a poem.  Think about various parables that tell us what God is like--a woman searching for a lost coin, a father with two sons who are lost in profound ways.  Writing poetry helps us move away from literal readings and gets our brain into a mode where we might better understand this kind of teaching.

--Writing poetry can enhance our powers of observation, which will enhance our feelings of gratitude and praise for our creator. I could make this case about other art forms too.

--If we're experimenting with poetry, it takes less time than some other art forms, like say, writing a novel or painting a huge mural. But the payoffs can be much greater than the investment of time would lead one to believe.

How to get started? Let's begin at the beginning, with the simple line. I'll give you some prompts, and you fill in the blank.

The creator is like __________________________.

I am a creation, the same as __________________________.

All of my being sings a song of __________________________.

_________________________ best represents my future.

Here's another exercise. Choose a color and then do the following prompt:

--list 5 shades of this color.

--list your 3 favorite things that are this color.

--this color represents what mood?

--what's a song that uses this color?

--what aspect of God does this color represent?

You may have a poem right there, hiding in plain sight in your answers.