In "THE QUIDDITY" in the following line Herbert says that he is with God while he creates poetry.

"But it (verse) is that which, while I use, /
I am with Thee"

Does poetry with its capacity to get at the essence of things, work for not only a devotional poet, but for me as well?

Chuck

The following is a poem by the devotional poet, George Herbert.
He finds God, or possibly God's essence, through his writing of poetry.

THE QUIDDITY
by George Herbert

My God, a verse is not a crown,
No point of honour, or gay suit,
No hawk, or banquet, or renown,
Nor a good sword, nor yet a lute.

It cannot vault, or dance, or play ;
It never was in France or Spain ;
Nor can it entertain the day
With a great stable or domain.

It is no office, art, or news ;
Nor the Exchange, or busy Hall :
But it is that which, while I use,
I am with Thee : and Most take all.

Chuck

Yeats was in love with Maud Gonne for virtually his whole life--she rejected his marriage proposals three times with the last proposal made in 1916. This was the year before he married his wife. He may have had Maud in mind in A Deep-Sworn Vow in spite of the fact she never made a vow. The following is one of the early "Maud" poems. It was written while he was young.

When You Are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

To be loved for my "pilgrim soul" would be wonderful.

Chuck

"The theme of this poem is the lasting impression made by a love affair which has been broken off, apparently long ago, and which has been superseded by other relationships." The lover has consciously been forgotten, but the image remains in the unconcious.

A DEEP-SWORN VOW by W.B. Yeats

Others because you did not keep
That deep-sworn vow have been friends of mine;
Yet always when I look death in the face,
When I clamber to the heights of sleep,
Or when I grow excited with wine,
Suddenly I meet your face.

The "New Critics" loved this poem. It has such economy of words and there is clarity in its ambiguity. Woe be the poor person that does not have the face of her / his first lover implanted in the unconscious.

Chuck

I attended a workshop by Jas Milam that dealt with, among other thing, Jungian Archetypes. She quoted George Bernard Shaw, "You use a glass mirror to see your face / You use a work of art to see your soul." So true. A work of art overflows with meaning. You understand ineffably what the poet means, but to explain it is to ruin it. Yeats believed that people in a culture share a "common dream" that is not reality, but is instead an illusion. The true artist awakens from the common dream. The following is taken from Yeats's poem, "Ego Dominus Tuus."

The rhetorician would deceive his neighbours,
The sentimentalist himself; while art
Is but a vision of reality.
What portion of the world can the artist have
Who has awakened from the common dream
But dissipation and despair.

Yeats was thinking of his friends, Lionel Johnson and Ernest Dowson, who had "awakened," only to die at an early age. Dowson had also been frustrated in love. Change the focus from "dissipation and despair" of the last line to an attitude of delight and desire and you have more of what I think poetry can do.

Chuck

A change of pace to William Butler Yeats. This one stanza poem is not one of his better known pieces. It is:

The Moods

Time drops in decay,
Like a candle burnt out,
And the mountains and woods
Have their day, have their day.
What one, in the rout
Of the fire-born moods
Has fallen away?

Robert Welch in "Changing States" says, "This poem repeats the idea, already there in prose, that the passions, or the 'moods', carry with them an impetus which comes from some kind of central core of being. Yeats is not thinking here of emotions, in the normal sense of the word, but of passion or mood or something that carries out of the everyday into a connection with the large patterns that make themselves apparent in the lives, not just of individuals, but of nations or races also" (62).

I like the idea of, "a connection with the large patterns" beyond self.

Chuck

The Unity Church principle on "prayer" is closely related to the principle on "thought." The principle is: "There is power in affirmative prayer, which we believe increases
our connection to God." In this kind of prayer God works through me and as Eric Butterworth was fond of saying, "God can do no more for you than God can do through you." In other words, "God helps those who help themselves." Many persons pray expecting that external circumstances will change and , instead, it is my consciouness of external circumstances that changes. I develop the consciousness necessary to be or do what is called for.

Chuck

The prior entry on forming intent fits well with the principles of the Unity Church. I was privileged to be in the Unity Congregation in New York City while Eric Butterworth was the minister. He often said, "change your thoughts and you will change your life." One of the Unity principles is, "We create our life experiences through our way of thinking." Change your thoughts by incorporating the intent forming process stated by Shakti Gawain and your life will change.

Chuck