Poetry can offer its own level of inspiration. It can captivate, stretch our imagination and swing with rhythm. It is often of its own merit. While some works rhyme with amazing style, have couplets loosely held together with a ‘journey of meaning.’ And that meaning could shine in different ways for readers and author, alike. The poems of Emily Dickinson, the amazing but reclusive writer of the 19 th century, often reflect this intrigue.
In the 1860s, possibly in the middle of the bloody Civil War, she penned:
A Man may make a Remark –
In itself – a quiet thing
That may furnish the Fuse unto a Spark
In dormant nature – lain –
Let us divide – with skill –
Let us discourse – with care
Powder exists in Charcoal –
Before it exists in Fire
Yes, of course, this speaks to the power that lies in words, in the ‘spark’ that they could ‘light the fuse.’
Many in authority, per my estimate, have been irresponsible with their words and have not, as Emily might suggest, ‘discoursed –with care.” However, that doesn’t give the rest of us a pass. Indeed, this good earth’s legacy -our legacy– depends on how we handle the powerful forces that lay dormant in this world.
The ‘powder in the charcoal,’ though? One could also look at that as the hidden power that sits in each of us, waiting to be unleashed. It is a knowledge that we can be better– that there are acts we can take, words we can offer in our reach for justice, equality and harmony.
There is a fire in us. Are we willing to find it? Let it burn with skillful passion?
