I think its fair to say that humankind has always had a yearning to connect with its origin.  There are any number of ways in which we have, or are, taking that journey.  I may reach for the stars studying the cosmos or delve into the secrets of subatomic particles.  I could pour over religious texts while living on an isolated mountaintop in a perpetual meditative state.  Perhaps taking up philosophy or ethics would be my chosen path to understanding.  I could adopt any or all the innumerable world religions in my quest to achieve. 

Why this yearning?  Dietrich Bonhoeffer tells us it is shame brought about by disunion with our origin: “…it is the painful endeavor to recover the lost unity by either a conscious and resolute or else a passionate and devoted inward overcoming of shame as the sign of disunion.”¹  Now, we could argue our case for what exactly is the origin; but, that is not my purpose here.  Suffice it to say that we can at least agree that there is an origin, what ever we individually or collectively choose it to be.  As I said in my previous blog of July 9, 2018, God is my origin.  My Faith is in Him, and my Hope lies with His living Word, Christ Jesus.  You, of course, are free to choose your own origin.

Karen Armstrong, British author and commentator, said, “A theology should be like poetry, which takes us to the end of what words and thoughts can do.”²  Poetry and theology often chart parallel courses in their individual paths to that which transcends our physical existence.  Sometimes the paths intersect, travelling together for a time.  I think we see this in the variety of poetic expression found in the world’s religious traditions and faiths.  Poetry comes from the deepest place within, that place where the origin was meant to reside.

One reason poetry has been important in my healing is because it allows me to interact with the great healer, God, in a couple of ways that are foundational to my relationship with him: God desires to provide for my needs, and God desires to participate in my creative works.  I think that both are illustrated perfectly in Genesis 2.  First, we see that God created man and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”³  In the man’s need, God gave him a piece of the divine that the man would live.  Second, God brought to the man every living creature to see what he would call them.  What the man called them became their name, clearly an expression of the man’s creativity initiated by God’s desire.

I have often said that, given my own inclinations, I would have never been able to write some 40 poems in the span of 2-3 years without God’s prodding.  The poems poured out like a river for a time, some forming in minutes; others, days.  I’m not saying that I am unique or special.  I am sure there exists a host of sensitive souls who are more gifted and better equipped than I to call themselves “poet;” claiming the title, though, is remarkable to me because it is so out of character.  God saw my need and brought the ideas to me to see what I would write.  I hope that he is pleased.

A. E. Fonner

Poetry comes from the deepest place within, that place where the origin was meant to reside.

¹Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Ethics (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 24.

²Armstrong, Karen, “Interview with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. September 21, 2009,” https://www.azquotes.com/author/543-Karen_Armstrong, (July 20, 2018).

³Gen 2:7 (NIV)