The Poetic Voice

There are many female poets sprinkled throughout this book. Emily Dickinson. Grace Noll Crowell. Phillis Wheatley. Marie de France. Madeleine L’Engle. Not to mention the many hymn writers. The poetry these women have written has spanned centuries. Their words inspire and challenge readers. They illuminate who God is and praise him.

What’s so special about poetry? Take a look at the Bible. Parts of it are plain and simple. The genealogies draw clear lines from one generation to the next. The stories we learned in Sunday school about David and Goliath, Noah and the ark, Jesus feeding the five thousand—they’re all told in plain narrative format.

But the Bible contains poetry, too. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Job are gathered in the center of our Old Testament as poetical works. These books are written in verse with vibrant imagery, deep symbolism, and sweeping emotion. The prophets often wrote in poetic form as well, and there are snippets of poems and songs throughout the historical books and the New Testament.

There are many ways to talk about God and what he has done in the world. Poetry, like other art forms, helps us understand in a creative way. It can turn ideas about God upside down and, when looked at from a different perspective, actually bring a clarity that straight prose would have difficulty conveying.

The poets you discover in this book are fairly traditional, and there’s a reason their poetry has resonated for decades or centuries. But there are modern poets, too, who are worth checking out. In every age, literary artists try to craft new experiences of God.

Nowadays, for instance, there is “spoken-word poetry,” a performance-art form of poetry that is meant to be heard, not read. Women, particularly urban women, are embracing this form of poetry and recording it, not on paper, but on video. Take a few minutes to search for “Christian spoken-word poetry” online. You’ll discover a whole new vibrant poetic voice to make you see God in a new way.

Whether the poetry you read is ancient (as in the Bible), traditional (like that of Emily Dickinson), or modern (like spoken word), interacting with God through the poetic voice gives you one more way to deepen your relationship with him.

Kind words are like honey—sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.

Proverbs 16:24