"On the other hand, poets speak with no authority but that which the reader is willing to grant them. Our task is not to convince but to suggest, evoke, explore. And to be a poet, which at its root means "maker," to be a maker of phenomena, speaking without reference to authority but simply because the words are given you, is not necessarily welcome in the academic world." -pg 37
I'm not a poet, but her thoughts on what it means to wrestle with words and authority in relation to words echo a lot of what I have discussed and reflected on with friends when it comes to how one writes academically versus reflectively and what feels truer to self for me. For myself, there is a lot more peace in offering up words as simply my experience, rather than to claim them as some sort of truth or authoritative perspective. And yet what would we be without academics who do just that?
"A poem, as Mallarme once said, is not made of ideas but of words, and faith also expresses itself through that which is lived, breathed, uttered, left silent... To make the poem of our faith, we must learn not to settle for a false certitude but to embrace ambiguity and mystery." -pg 62
I find great depth in the thought that our faith finds its expression through our lives, our physical being, our words AND the things we leave unsaid. For it is in the uncertainty, the things we don't have words for that we sometimes find the most beautiful parts of our faith and belief.
The Psalms "defeat our tendency to try to be holy without being human first." -pg 96
The Psalms always bring me back to the realness of struggle and anger and joy and praise- reminding me that feeling is at the very heart of being. And I'm always so grateful for that reminder.
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