The Poet-Philosopher's Passion

One aspect of an authentic poet-philosopher’s passion is to help take on the world’s problems by getting to the heart of the matters and conveying that to others.

The poet-philosopher is a visionary who takes on the challenges of the world’s problems by diving into the depth of the matters at hand, seeking the most comprehensive and exhaustive understanding of these matters and issues in all realms of thought—science, philosophy, religion, art, and spirituality—and putting themselves into the shoes of everyone on all sides.

They investigate all facets, all dimensions, all ideologies so that they are the most empathetically empowered to then comprehend and convey the heart of the matters to the world, opening the door for an honest handling of the issues that will hint at, and lead to, inspiring solutions for all creation, all things living, and for all humankind.

The poet-philosopher is also sometimes prophetic in unveiling the potential ills or harms that may befall us if the problems at hand are not addressed and the course of society is not changed—and visionary in pointing to better ways and a better future.

Poetry has been called the highest form of communication in language, and it is, but it goes beyond that as well. Poetry not only communicates, it conveys. A powerful, thought-provoking poem is more than the sum of the words present. It is an organic entity to be experienced by the reader. It communicates on other than conscious levels and impresses itself on the mind and heart of the reader through these channels. In this way it conveys more than it says.

A poem doesn’t always do this by being heady, or abstract, or dealing in philosophical concepts.

A poem is a slice of life.

It is often a small scene or event presented and explored and conveyed in poetic language that says more than the words present. Philosophic thoughts of life may be the farthest thing from the reader’s conscious mind when reading a poem, but the way the poem conveys that slice of life is what impresses its philosophic thoughts of life on the mind and heart of the reader through these other than conscious channels.

A good reader of poetry will read a poem over and over to absorb its essence and to allow the organic power of the poetry to work behind the scenes to increase their empathetic understanding and to allow it to give serendipitous moments of understanding, noticing, awareness, enlightenment, and broader comprehension to the conscious mind.

This is the long legacy of poetry in our world. And it is a sad state of affairs when many in a society do not appreciate the power of their poets and the poetry of their generation—when they view it in disdain and regard poets as strange people who need to get a life.

What an error and fallacy of an unenlightened generation.

Nevertheless, the poet-philosopher’s passion is to bear with it and continue to dive into the challenges of the world’s problems and to continue to explore at depth and then craft their work to convey the true and genuine heart and state of affairs through these slices of life called poems.

Because the poet-philosopher is a visionary who refuses to live in the systemically erected box of society as programmed through the world’s media, they are often way out of place in their society and generation. And that is why, so often, a poet is not famous or recognized until after his or her death, in retrospect, after the rest of society catches up.◊◊◊