Poetry
- maevus
- Jun 18
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 8
June 18, 2025.
Recently I’ve found that my mind is often busy and cluttered- not only with my usual life concerns, but also with the addition of all the news stories that are swirling around. Stories filled with words that I’ve never really heard or used much before 2025—rhetoric, corruption, tyranny, protest, disinformation, extortion, fascism, resistance.
Words are important. They create stories and are essential elements of the information networks which influence us.
Poetry is one word-form that can counteract the negative stories around us. It can provide a vehicle for honest verbal expression and can comfort and challenge the readers and writer alike,[1].
Robert McDowell says that poetry as spiritual practice helps us to “clear space and create order out of confusion and…makes possible even greater discernment, clarity and attention to detail,” [2].
I’ve found that writing poems as a prayer practice has assisted my connection with God, given me peace, and often has made me feel healed in some way. At times, it has even given me a sense of fulfilment.
I am well aware that most of us haven't been encouraged to write poetry and don’t consider ourselves as poets. Some of you may have been discouraged from writing anything, especially not poetry. I am inviting you to consider the possibility that everyone can write poetry. Even you.
There are many ways to use poetry as a spiritual practice. I am presenting only one of many possibilities.
There are several steps to the invitation:
Center yourself for 3-5 minutes. Because poetry is rhythmic, paying attention to and slowing your breath can be a helpful way to center before you enter into the practice.
Listen to the poem Blessing When the World Is Ending by Jan Richardson, [3]. The words are below the voice note if you want to read along.
Create a found poem from Jan Richardson’s poem. This is done by taking words or phrases from her poem to create your own poem. Don’t put limits on your poem. Be open to the Spirit’s creativity-- rearrange the words, change tenses, add other words that seems to fit.
Write down your own “found” poem.
Speak it aloud and/or in the silence of your heart.
Express a prayer of gratitude that you have been able to connect with God in this way and have created something altogether new.
Consider using your poem in your future prayer times.
Consider sharing your poem with someone else. I’d love to read it!
Blessing When the World Is Ending
By Jan Richardson, [4].
Look, the world
is always ending
somewhere.
Somewhere
the sun has come
crashing down.
Somewhere
it has gone
completely dark.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the gun,
the knife,
the fist.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the slammed door,
the shattered hope.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the utter quiet
that follows the news
from the phone,
the television,
the hospital room.
Somewhere
it has ended
with a tenderness
that will break
your heart.
But, listen,
this blessing means
to be anything
but morose.
It has not come
to cause despair.
It is here
simply because
there is nothing
a blessing
is better suited for
than an ending,
nothing that cries out more
for a blessing
than when a world
Is falling apart.
This blessing
will not fix you,
will not mend you,
will not give you false comfort;
it will not talk to you
about one door opening
when another one closes.
It will simply
sit itself beside you
among the shards
and gently turn your face
toward the direction
from which the light
will come
gathering itself
about you
as the world begins
again.
Robert McDowell, Poetry as Spiritual Practice: Reading, Writing and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations and Intentions. Free Press, New York, 2008, 9.
Ibid, 6, 15.
Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons, Wanton Gospeller Press, Orlando, FL, 2015, 34-36.
I am grateful to the blog reader who suggested that I use this poem.
This blog is dedicated to the memory of Maureen Fowler, a beloved spiritual mentor.
Comments