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Spiritual Poetry – What Does It Mean?

Spiritual poetry is a phrase which might or might not mean something. Straightaway you think of religious poems, metaphysical poetry or even inspirational poetry. In your mind you journey through the insights provided by particular religions – in Christian poetry for example – or periods in history; the uplifting quality of religious poetry; the pure, clear air of the great epics – something that touches life, that brushes it with the wings of the eternal. The word ‘religious’ can describe a feeling or attitude which may be completely independent of any particular religion. ‘Metaphysical’ denotes a way of flexing the mind without the need of a prescribed set of beliefs. ‘Inspirational’ indicates the manner in which you feel charged or enlivened in life by example. So what is a spiritual poem?

As a vegetarian I was once asked by a restaurant owner, who was thinking of introducing a ‘vegetarian option’ onto his menu, ‘What do vegetarians like?’ I should have had a ready answer but instead I was perplexed and confounded by the question. It brought back all those occasions when I had been made to feel like an oddity, a special breed. Too late I thought of the answer: ‘Vegetarians like good food.’ No different from meat-eaters. Once that principle is established you can pass on to the method of preparation and the ingredients. Now the magical thing of course is that as soon as you start thinking of good food – whether it includes meat or not – you begin to work consciously. In other words consciousness is the first requirement of good food. And if you’re working consciously you will sooner or later begin to weigh up the merits of a vegetarian or a meat-based diet. This in turn goes back to your needs as a human being – a being living on the earth, under the heavens, who has a spiritual component in his nature. To think about food requires you to be a spiritual being. Of course being a vegetarian may grow out of you with a passion – it may be a detestation of meat or it may be an ethical appraisal of the manner in which we use animals. At any rate good food requires consciousness.

So what do we look for in spiritual poetry or the spiritual poem? The first thing is that we want it to be a good poem. There’s nothing worse than something awash with all the right ingredients which simply doesn’t satisfy. The good food principle applies here. The poet has to feed the reader as well as drawing on all the right sources. In this sense all good poetry is ‘spiritual’ – it draws on the spiritual resources of the poet and nourishes the reader with understanding and feeling. So what makes a poem belong specifically to the genre of the spiritual? I’ll cut to the chase here and say that I believe a spiritual poem is not one where ‘spirit’ is the subject – although it might be – nor where the poet’s intention is to be ‘spiritual’. It is rather a poem which is given by the spirit and which moves the reader to a true feeling for the relationship between heaven and earth. This is a stage above the satisfying of appetite or the combination of ingredients. It corresponds to the place where the chef – who is consciously trained in his or her art – begins to work with inspiration. In other words not only is good food or good poetry present but something beyond: a quality which balances out all the needs of the person – body, mind and spirit – and which comes from a source which the creator cannot exactly identify. Ultimately, then, spiritual poetry is not ‘inspirational’ but does inspire; is not merely religious but brings heaven to earth in a living way; is not just metaphysical but draws on an understanding of the wellsprings of life. This would be my understanding of the otherwise nebulous concept of ‘spiritual poetry’.

Best wishes, today,

Landar

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 Picture: Nike Mousa, goddess of musical victory