devotions

is it unfashionable to declare poetry, the obsessions of reading/writing poetry, a religious calling? i think i've made it clear that i am an atheist but i am a man who was raised nominally catholic and still wishes for transcendence. of some sort. i ran across a phrase regarding another poet recently that i liked very much, pulp metaphysics, that i think pertains to my own obsessions and my own desire for uplift.

i've also said on this blog that i do think poetry is a calling. a devotion, along with the attention to ritual and even, dare i add, ceremony, that are so very much like what we find in spiritual practice. i don't mean that i think poets, and readers, are holy, or that the obsessions for poetry are sacrosanct. i mean to suggest that poetry is not a moneyed occupation, nor does it come with fame. rather we engage in poetry because we are called to it. poetry is larger than us. i do add that the calling is for everyone who wishes to head the call. there are no elect in poetry. there is the practice of poetry which if maintained becomes a life in poetry.

i found myself reading a bit the cuban born poet jose kozer and watched this wonderful conversation with the poet last night. kozer quotes proust, i do not believe but i have great faith, and for kozer that faith is in poetry. the ceremony is the daily ritual of writing a poem. every day. like prayer. like meditation. that calls to my mind another poet, one opposite of kozer in style, but who also wrote a poem everyday, william stafford. stafford was asked what he would do if the poem he wrote in a day wasn't very good. he said, i lower my standards.