Poetry Schmoetry

The other day I was at a party and overheard a girl complaining about having to study poetry. "Why can't you just say 'you're hot', why must you say 'your eyes are like clouds, and when you walk the flowers light up underneath your feet'. " 

I think she might have just watched Avatar and confused the movie with poetry, but her point was still heard. Why can't we just come out and say it? Why do we have to hide behind metaphors?

I think it has something to do with the message. The message is often too big to be expressed in plain speak. I can't tell a girl "you're hot", because she is so much more than that. To tell her how hot she is does nothing to express what I actually feel about her.

Metaphors give us the ability to be able to tell a girl that she's so much more than just hot. The work of a poet is to try and explain emotions that can't be expressed, and that's complicated. But I think if the message wasn't complicated to express then it would prove to be a message that wasn't laced with emotion, a message that didn't come from within.

When I studied poetry in high school my English teacher told me that men would sit and write sonnets in iambic pentameter to show how much effort they would be willing to go to. They would choose an incredibly complicated method to woo a girl, but the poem is not only complicated for the writer, it is complicated for the reader too. When you get a poem it takes a while to read and understand fully what the person is saying, but when you understand the metaphors and similes, you are welcomed into a world of beauty.

I think we need to realize that God is a poet too, working to woo us. Often we don't understand God; we find him confusing, but I think that is because we fail to realize that the message that He is trying to tell is not an ordinary message.

I remember once wondering why the world had mountains and valleys. It would have been a lot easier if there weren't any, but then we wouldn't have Table Mountain, the Grand Canyon, God's Window, or the Himalayas. The world would be devoid of the amazing beauty we are now able to experience.

Sometimes complicating things can open up the beauty and make it more visible. Perhaps God isn't being complicated for the sake of it. Perhaps He is complicated because there is no other way to express the beauty. Perhaps if God told humanity He thought it was 'hot' it wouldn't have the same impact as sending His Son to die on a cross 2000 years ago outside Jerusalem. Perhaps, maybe...