Poetry Can Respond to Suffering, Says Dean Powery
It can be difficult to explain suffering in the world or in the lives of individuals, but there is a long tradition of responding to suffering with poetry, Chapel Dean Luke Powery says in his latest column for the (Duke) Chronicle.
Citing the presence of poetry in the biblical Book of Job, Dean Powery says, “You may not be able to prose your way through suffering; you may have to poeticize a pathway through it.”
“We also see this with the creators of the Spirituals in the context of slavery,” he says. “There is a poetics of pain, and it is wise to confront suffering with poetry.”
“We can pen our pain on paper and make as we ache,” he concludes. “Poetry may not stop your individual suffering or the suffering of the world, but it can keep you alive and ensure that you are not consumed by existential chaos.”