I have found that poetry brings me into “presence”. It seems to me that poetry transcends space and time and, as such, is timeless. For me, poetry speaks to the soul, is neither felt not read, but is experienced. I have found that the heart and soul whisper, using a voice I sometimes struggle to speak with.
A favourite poet of mine is Donna Ashworth. Her books of hope, grief, love, and life, deliver to me a delicacy of emotions read by my heart, not my eyes. They remind me that we truly are all one, every day, in our wee human jacket. I find in her work the power of being human, experiencing both pain and pleasure. Through her poems I have been helped to receive all of life's experiences as lessons and blessings, and find them all healing in some way. It's been good to remember that we are all connected, that we all share pain and grief, loss and love collectively, and that none is separate or ever alone.
Something I enjoy in poetry, and in Ashworth in particular, is how words can be used and understood differently. I am thinking of a word like “friendships”. This can be read as “friend ships”, as vessels that carry us through the seas of life where we support each other through life's storms, and are lifeguards for each other. Just as ships travel and journeys end, such is the flow of life. Yet endings mean rebirth, new beginnings. Without them there would be no new beginnings. Poetry allows a use of words in new ways, to assemble them in a new order, and can open us to new understandings of deeper power.
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