alias: tags:#idea-note url: https://www.airr.io/quote/61a880a53aae6012c8839cff
For those who don’t believe- there’s poetry
Context / Source
Padraig quotes this in Poetry Unbound
Key Idea
Carol Ann Duffy has a famous poem called Prayer
One time, when she was going to read it at an even she said “I don’t believe in God, but one of the things that I think would be lovely about believing in God would be the sense that someone is listening”
“For those of us that don’t believe, there’s poetry”
—
I like that even for people who don’t have religion, there’s still something to believe in
I think of my student who said that he doesn’t believe in anything except for himself. And I found that quite sad, because I didn’t really know what he meant by that. I like it when people talk about believing in places or people. Some people travel and that’s like prayer to them. Or like a pilgrimage to them.
There’s always something someone believes in- you just have to dig down a bit deeper.
—
I think poetry is like a spell
Well chosen words that sounds nice. That mean something. Maybe they’re attached to special places and things. When other people visit it, it’s not quite the same. But you can create rituals and habits (and performances) that attach meaning to places and times and objects
Just like magic, and casting a spell