poetry

• discern p. in prose of routine existence

48:7.2220. Only a poet can dis­cern po­etry in the com­mon­place prose of rou­tine ex­is­tence.

• originated in incantations

92:3.6Re­li­gion has hand­i­capped so­cial de­vel­op­ment in many ways, but with­out re­li­gion there would have been no en­dur­ing moral­ity nor ethics, no worth-while civ­i­liza­tion. Re­li­gion en­moth­ered much non­re­li­gious cul­ture: Sculp­ture orig­i­nated in idol mak­ing, ar­chi­tec­ture in tem­ple build­ing, po­etry in in­can­ta­tions, mu­sic in wor­ship chants, drama in the act­ing for spirit guid­ance, and danc­ing in the sea­sonal wor­ship fes­ti­vals.

• relieve philosophy with

143:7.3Wor­ship—con­tem­pla­tion of the spir­i­tual—must al­ter­nate with ser­vice, con­tact with ma­te­rial re­al­ity. Work should al­ter­nate with play; re­li­gion should be bal­anced by hu­mor. Pro­found phi­los­o­phy should be re­lieved by rhyth­mic po­etry. The strain of liv­ing—the time ten­sion of per­son­al­ity—should be re­laxed by the rest­ful­ness of wor­ship. The feel­ings of in­se­cu­rity aris­ing from the fear of per­son­al­ity iso­la­tion in the uni­verse should be an­ti­doted by the faith con­tem­pla­tion of the Fa­ther and by the at­tempted re­al­iza­tion of the Su­preme.

• effort to escape from material to spiritual values

195:7.15Art proves that man is not mech­a­nis­tic, but it does not prove that he is spir­i­tu­ally im­mor­tal. Art is mor­tal mor­ontia, the in­ter­ven­ing field be­tween man, the ma­te­rial, and man, the spir­i­tual. Po­etry is an ef­fort to es­cape from ma­te­rial re­al­i­ties to spir­i­tual val­ues.