COLUMN: Columnist sees poetry in motion

Poems touch a part of us that prose simply cannot. Poetry is a purer form of communication — a heart-to-heart, silent melody reaching recesses of ourselves normally left untouched and in want.

A William Davies poem, in particular, has for some reason, which I assume you will understand as you continue to read, stuck with me for several years. I’ll spare you the poem in its entirety and settle with reading four lines. It goes like this,

“What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to

stand and stare.

No time to turn at

Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.”

This poem is a subtle reminder for me to take a deep breath and to let go of the things I am holding onto, which are causing undue anxiety. Furthermore, I see it as a signpost to take a step back and reassess circumstances.

So often, we misjudge and misinterpret the events taking place in our lives. How many problems are caused due to misjudging others and ourselves? We should look at what actually is, as opposed to what we would wish it to be. Our insecurities and fears cover the actual thing.

I entreat you to bear with me, for I speak to you as you. I feel it is a duty as a human living on this Earth to hold life in high regard. I look around and see rampant destruction of the environment and a wanton disregard for other peoples. Granted, good is happening, but I inquire whether it will be enough to offset the troubles that beset us.

Species are declining, the infrastructure is wearing thin, our energy sources are going dry, the planet is warming and yet we continue, as a culture, to consume resources at an unsustainable rate. Each of us has a part, and if one does not value life, then life will be taken from you, and Man will perish from this Earth and all loves wasted in sand.

Buckminster Fuller once said that one never changes things by fighting the existing reality, one changes something by building something new and making the existing model obsolete.

Our external reality is constantly becoming something it was not before. As a result, we must constantly strive forward into a world that will forever uncover itself. The individual has within his or her power the ability to change the world for the better and we start with ourselves in our daily interactions. Our actions reverberate through time and nothing is left without an effect. It is not we who persist; it is what we do.

I am taken by bouts of weakness, as we all are, but you and I keep lifting the other upwards, for this is the purpose of existence – the full, unabated expression of ones humanity. We each have a part to play in this grand dance of existence.

Each person has their particular talents, and it is these talents each of us should cultivate and nurture. Some of us are athletes, some musicians, some artists. But, the point is no matter what one has, one can utilize it for both self-edification and the upliftment of others.

By working for ourself, we in turn work for the whole. By working for the whole we are made happy and whole. Indeed, it is within our power to make this world free and beautiful — a place where humanity and Earth are in harmony. Life is a poem.