Poetry (3)

How do we envision the poetry of the future? The first thing we need to do to answer this question is to take a closer look at poetry today, as we already did. Currently, there are not many enthusiasts for this artistic discipline and part of the reason for this is the general impoverishment of the language. For the last 20 or 30 years, with digital means of communication, transmission and everything that surrounds this world, there has been a real degeneration in the use of language, speech, or words. Abbreviations, omissions, avoidance of long sentences, or the bypassing of anything that is complicated, exhaustive or difficult, in any way in terms of grammar or syntax, have created a real devastation within many languages. People who can read or write properly are seriously decreasing; everything seems to be degrading or even fading away, disappearing, only to be replaced by what?

Sadly, there seems to be no constructive or edifying replacement for what is no longer used. True lovers of language or speech are increasingly setting out to save what they believe needs saving, and their efforts are not useless but they certainly do not reach the majority yet. This implies that the art of the word, of which poetry is a part, will remain for some time to come in the hands of a minority, as it has been until now. However, this does not mean that we should be discouraged or think that any effort or even progress in this field is futile. Certainly not, it is quite the opposite. The art of speech is supposed to lead humanity in the future, starting with a minority as the future has always been prepared by the efforts of the few, never by the majority.

One can even say that the future of humanity depends on the art of speech, as strange as it may seem. After all, what is this art, what exactly is the art of speech? Through the means of speech, man concretizes an intention and a thought, which can be of high or, on the contrary, of low quality, even negative. This concretization is magical, Divine, it is God Himself who created our world, our reality, in the same way. The word is therefore creative, either in the good or in the bad sense. That is exactly the idea that was evoked in the story of the trumpets of Jericho: when sound is linked to speech, to the word, it can build or destroy. All of which means that using language has a serious effect on this world and its inhabitants, and that effect is not to be underestimated. And even though only a minority is interested in something like poetry, that minority is salutary and can continue to keep up the fire of blessings through speech or through thought in this world, where others, out of ignorance, use the same medium often in a negative way. The power of language, and through it, of thought, is found in an artistic discipline like poetry, and this poetry has the right to be cultivated, to continue to exist. It is even a duty, a necessity.

However, this language, these words or these sayings must not be hollow, meaningless talk, because it is precisely within them that their power, their magic side, lies. To unleash their full force, these words and sayings need to be filled with meaning, truthfulness, even true love. This is why the poetry of the future does not aim at putting into words vague ideas, vague feelings, or even pure sentimentality. No, the poetry of the future will put into words clear thoughts, in the service of edifying, pure intentions. This poetry aims to bring those who read it further along the path of understanding the sense of life; it aims to instruct humanity by offering real themes of reflection, of meditation. In the more distant past, this kind of poetry has existed, for example in Japanese Haiku or Sufi poems. However, the intellectualization of our present world has moved too far away from this kind of thinking, or poetry. Modern man has not learned to go so deep into things in life, he lives very much on the surface where he can simply act, or enjoy things pertaining only to the external world.

For it is also true that in order to really understand and appreciate the world of poetry, of a deeper poetry, it is necessary to settle down, to take the time to interiorize, to mature words from within oneself. Who still has this time, who does not let himself be drawn constantly towards the outside, towards concrete life? In other words, the poetry of the future poses some conditions, both for the poets and for those who will read it. From the poets, it will be necessary to adopt a more profound attitude towards existence, a more meditative, spiritual attitude. From the readers, the same attitude will be required, or at least a serious questioning, a research attitude. The poetry of the future will be assigned the mission of providing answers to existential questions; it will have the task of forming a bridge between the world here below, concrete, and the world above, the world of the soul. The task of the poetry of the future is to help bring those who read it to a better understanding of this invisible world. Because poetry has the capacity, by the choice of its words, to instill in man a hint of this higher world.

The poet’s thought, coming from this superior world, can, through the poetic word, touch the heart of man and arouse an emotion linked to the soul. This is the power of poetry. Music can also bring man into this world, but in a less lasting way than poetry. In this sense, music, melody, fades more easily, unless it is linked to the word, to words. The words are durable; the speech remains in our memory and continues to act inside us, in a constructive way or not. In this respect, the art of the word, or poetry, is the art of the future, because it is based on the lasting force of the word, of rhythm and sound at the same time. We can say that the words related to poetry are magical even when they are not spoken, because they directly connect with the world above in the heart, including memory. May poets and poetesses recover the path towards the new word, Divinely inspired, at the service of human evolution!

Mother