The Ultimately Accepting Poet

Holy Trinity's "men's forum" met for the first time tonight at my home. Great coffee and a great book were had. Over the next several weeks we'll be discussing one of my favorite books of all time, G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. I love how Chesterton speaks of poetry and the poet in the beginning of the book.

Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion... To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain. The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.

The poet hooks himself into God's story, and gives voice to it beautifully (tragically, woefully, ecstatically, wonderfully, whatever-beautifully). This is true even in intensely personal poetry. Rage, for example, fits in God's story, and can be portrayed by the true poet. Or the poet can rage in trying to beat creation/thestory down, to dominate it, and so becomes non-poet.

To the fathers:

This is a fantastic poem about dad.

And this is a very bad poem about dad. A stupid poem, even. An unwhole (insane) poem.