Poetry Forum

Why I Read the Book of Job


As the mind’s mooring in reality
detaches, it behooves a man to ask
the sixty-dollar question: what in fact
becomes of ethics if we cease to care
what x has lived through or what y has done?
That is a question raised by art. When I
no longer see things as they really are,
how can I tell what pain is, or reduce it?

I want to be alive to every hurt
or falsehood, and be hurt by them myself
enough to see them truly. Which is not
the path I’ve taken to serenity
through art. When I see beauty, I feel joy –
and these days, I see beauty on each side,
in every instant, settling my mind
to peace. But pain is pain in any language:

an absolute. And if we help to end it,
we’ve made the world a little better – and
if we at least can see it truly, we
can burn away the fog that hides its victims
a little, and that seems to me correct.

 

I like what you've written here, and I agree with it, but is it a good poem? It is entirely philosophical, like an excerpt from a thoughtful person's diary. You don't relate a painful event, but rather theorize about pain. It violates the rule I was taught that an effective poem must be anchored to a plausible event, preferably a moving event; that poems which are just about ideas will not sway many readers, unless, of course, those readers are Vulcans. So I categorize this poem as a poem for Vulcans. There is nothing visceral about it, and that is what is needed -- something to anchor it in the reader's feelings. Of course, a reader who has just learned the lessons you are describing in the poem may indeed be moved by it.

I'm not suggesting you scrap it. In order to prevent violence, we may all evolve into Vulcan-like humanoids, in which case you may be remembered as one of our greatest poets. Besides, it is part of who you are.

Oh, I just looked at the title again. Christians may like this poem.

Hi Caleb,

People produce some interesting rules for poetry. I've heard before now never to use the word the in a poem. It's a rule.

Few Christians I know like the Book of Job. They tend to find it depressing. Jews on the other hand write books and give talks about it. Go figure.

I like the category Poems for Vulcans, as I've said before. It makes an interesting argument.

Cheers,
John

I ignore most of the rules I hear, since rules just put borders around a poet's creativity. However, I think it's pretty much true that a poem which is all ideas -- philosophical, religious or otherwise -- has less immediacy and realistic appeal than a poem which is focussed on an event or object. This poem is all about ideas.

Actually, it's all about pain. It's just about others' pain, which may easily appear abstract.

I agree with your opinion of rules for poems.

Cheers,
John

For the moment I just want to say ...

I wonder, wonder who, who-oo-ooh
Who wrote the Book of Job?

I will be back with something more helpful later.

Cheers

David

Chapter One says you suffer, you suffer with all your heart;
Chapter Two says you tell God, you're never ever ever gonna part ...

Keep it up, John! I like where you're going with that.