I read this weekend that poetry is a tool to break open locked chambers of possibility, restore numbed zones of feeling, recharge desire. (Adrienne Rich).
As an Electrical Engineering student we didn’t take many classes about poetry, and I am embarrassed to admit that as a child my interest in poetry was pretty much limited to Casey at the Bat, a few Shakespeare sonnets, Haiku’s, and the occasional limerick. I have grown over the years and now I collect the poetry of Roger Armbrust, Dannye Powell, Anne Woodworth, and several others. I love the skill that a poet brings to the page, and certain lines stay with me forever. However poetry is not a tool that I’m equipped to operate.
What I do know a lot about are “locked chambers of possibility” and “numbed zones of feeling.” (Don’t you just love these phrases?) Monday’s are those days where I commit to find the keys to those chambers, leave those zones, and recharge. For the poet Adrienne Rich, she uses poetry, for others they may use music or dance. Whatever it takes today we find the tools to open, restore, and recharge. Have a great week.
Here’s what Emily Dickinson said:
I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –
Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –
Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –
Thank you Anne.