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What Do Poetry and Peace Education Have in Common?
“Global Peace Education World Art Day” — April 15, 2023
If you google the phrase “definitions of poetry” you will, within 1.2 seconds, have access to more than 1.4 billion citations. One could spend the rest of their life reading these definitions and still not understand what poetry is about and the positive impact it can have on people.
I love poetry. I love reading it and I love writing it. Why? Because it is one of the most direct ways I know to cut through the clutter of my life, feel something meaningful and be escorted into the present moment.
At first blush, a poem seems to be nothing more than just a collection of words — words, by themselves, that are nothing more than symbols — more like the menu of what’s in the kitchen than the actual food.
But a really evocative poem — just like a really evocative piece of music, painting, or moment with someone you love — has the power to awaken the very best of what it means to be a human being.
Ah, yes, human beings — not just human doings — the species known, in Latin, as “homo sapiens” – “the ones who know”.
“Know what”? you may ask.
That is the question, isn’t it? What is it that we, as a species, have the capacity…
