On Poetry

After reading Master’s¹ lecture on fine arts, I had some thoughts about poetry that I wanted to share. It has taken some time to overcome the blocks to sit and write this article. I have also left this article sitting on my computer for several months because I have been interfered with by the notion that as someone who is not a professional writer or a trained writer, I am not in a position to comment. Also, because my view differs from what is portrayed in the poetry of many Dafa practitioners, I was reluctant to say anything. However, I can see that I have a responsibility to share my thoughts with other practitioners. I am a practitioner, and the most important thing is to share my enlightenment from the Fa², not to worry about some human sense of “qualification.”

Looking at the English poetry on some of our websites, much of it is in a more modern style. Some is written without particular emphasis on rhyme, rhythm, meter, etc. However, from reading Master’s lecture on fine art several times I came to the understanding that the requirement for poetry, just as art, for the future is that it follows an upright and traditional path. The subject and general content of many of the poems of Dafa practitioners is correct, and the things that are expressed are very pure, high-level, profound and compassionate in nature. However, I think that, to a degree, we have often not considered whether the form of the poetry is itself upright. A modern style of poetry seems to be accepted. As long as it seems we are able to use it to express the meanings we wish to, then its seems OK to adopt just about any kind of form to call it poetry. I think that it is not necessarily wrong to write poems in these forms to achieve the effect of clarifying the facts. For example, if one were to enter a modern style poetry competition with a poem about the persecution, then this form would be a wonderful way to clarify the facts to many people. However, I think we should be clear that this modern form of poetry is not the form we should be leaving for the future.

My understanding is that the Gods give each and every form of art. This includes music, poetry and art. Fine art is the means that gods have left through using the principles of painting, of form, composition, colour, light and dark and so on to depict the glory of heaven. So my understanding is that poetry it is the way and path gods leave for humans to use the language of humankind, it’s inherent rhythms and sounds, it’s ability to rhyme, and the infusion of the inner meaning of words, multiple meanings of words, and the combination of the words etc. to depict the glory of the heavens and of the gods. Modern poetry often contains none of these things. For Dafa practitioners’ poetry up to this point, it often only contains the subject matter of a more upright nature, but the form itself is not a traditional upright one.

I went through the process of trying to write poetry in more traditional style, paying close attention to the form of the poem itself, and trying to apply what I understood from Master’s lecture and from the Fa. The whole process really drew out many notions and attachments that I did not know I had, and showed me an entirely new path. For example, I had some kind of notion that poetry should be a kind of spontaneous reflection of what is on one’s mind. I felt that one should not need to go over again and again, trying to think of this word or that word, or trying to get things to rhyme this way or that way, as though that was somehow a clumsy process. When I looked at this mentality it was clearly not correct. Just as Master talked about how the more care an artist puts into the work, the better, so must be the case with poetry. The more clear-minded and conscious we are in carrying out our upright wish to express the glory of Gods in our poetry, the better able we are to do so. Whether we spontaneously come up with the writing or take a long time agonising over each and every word, does not matter, the most fundamental thing is that we do it with full awareness and with care. The wish to be able to spontaneously come up with some words to express something actually came from my attachments and notions. I had some deviated notion that if something is worked on, and does not come out spontaneously then it is not an expression of the person’s thoughts. I felt that to have to go over and over to try to find the right words, to struggle through the process was kind of clumsy and showed that one was not such a strong writer. Yet, I found that the process of writing, going over and over, and becoming more and more clear-minded, takes one closer and closer to the real meaning one wishes to express and is also the process of becoming clearer in one’s mind about what one wishes to express. The speed with which we compose the poem it is partly how much we have mastered the skill of writing. Just as a more experienced painter may paint quicker because they experience allows them to do so, whilst the beginner will take longer. But the purpose isn’t to be able to express our momentary mindset, it is to clear mindedly compose a poem with a clear purpose. The process of composition of a poem, just like a painting, is best if we do not jump straight in and start painting at one corner, like a child, and then gradually fill in across the canvas, dictated by what we have just painted. Just as a painter pays attention to the overall composition and form of the painting and creates a clear idea of the overall form and composition before picking up a brush, so we should do with poetry.

With poetry the composition will include the subject, the rhyme-scheme, the overall length and structure of the poem, the use of overall themes, metaphors and similes, the tone of the language, the kinds of words used etc. There are many, many inter-related factors. Actually all of these factors should be combined together and considered together so that the poem truly transcends the everyday language from which it comes. But this needs to be a clear-minded process with a clear goal.

Of course, the process of deciding on the content, form and composition for poetry may be much faster and be combined with other processes, and with time will become a very natural process for the writer but is nonetheless something which must be paid attention to and decided upon with a clear mind.

For modern people, poetry seems to represent a kind of freedom from the rule and regulations of language. To conform to a strict pattern of rhyme, meter and rhythm is seen as restrictive to whatever it is that one wishes to express. Trying to write within the confines of a very strict pattern of meter, and rhyme, I found that, contrary to my expectations, it was not restrictive in terms of what I was able express. Quite the opposite, I found that when I clear-mindedly worked within those confines, I was able to express everything I wanted to. But because of working within those structures, the inherent meanings, sounds, meter and rhyme of the words and language worked together in such way that it is able to far transcend the meaning and depth of simple prose or modern poetry style. Of course, I was working within the limitations of my own vocabulary and level of familiarity with the language. I could sense that the more practice one had, the greater one’s vocabulary and the more broad and open one’s knowledge of the language, the more one would be able to express what one wished to.

There has been a debate for the last few decades in human society about whether poetry should rhyme. Now it seems to be generally accepted in the society that poetry does not need to rhyme at all. The definition of poetry has become broader and broader and more and more deviated. I have come to the conclusion after studying Master’s lecture on Fine Art, and going through the process of writing more poetry that poetry definitely should rhyme. Not only that, it should have a clear, structured rhyme scheme and a clear meter, and a structured overall form.

So why should a poem rhyme? Other forms of writing, i.e., prose are able to make use of various other forms of language to add to and deepen the meaning of the writing. For example, the use of the sounds of words, alliteration, simile, metaphors etc can all be employed in prose. It cannot be that it becomes a poem simply because we split it into lines. To me, simply splitting language into different lines is not enough to call it poetry, which is a form of art worthy of depicting Gods and heaven’s glory. We must use the form that Gods have passed down through the nature and form of the sound and structure of language itself. The rhyme and meter of words is not something that exists by accident. Language is created by Gods, so poetry is a form Gods have created for mankind to use the effect that the inherent rhymes of words can produce to deepen the meaning. To enable humankind to express of the glory of heavens and what is righteous, the Gods have imbued the language with an inherent beauty that can be drawn out and used in the form of poetry when the writers thoughts are upright.

These thoughts are somewhat incomplete, but I wanted to share them with my fellow practitioners in the hope that we can all consider this issue in more depth. I hope that we can move forward together, so that we understand the requirements for writing poetry more clearly and can truly blaze a righteous path for the future and leave a correct and upright form for the future. Comments are warmly welcomed.

Terms:

1. Master - Respectfully referring to the founder of Falun Gong, Mr Li Hongzhi
2. Fa - Universal principle, the teachings of Falun Gong