The Promised Land Project: National Poetry Month: The Use of Poetry in the Revitalization of the Moral Culture

Turning Vision into Action....at least hypothetically

Strike up the music of the band
We're blazing a trail for the promised land
Heaven on earth is within you.

Through the writing of stories, poetry, essays, and a novel, I’ve creatively contended with the consumer culture and the problem of the ideal in the modern era. This preoccupation in time would lead to a vision of cultural transformation and where I believe our democratic society needs to go to truly progress beyond the modern era. Conceding my limited credibility, this blog provides a synthesis of recognized visionaries, poets, and writers with the objective of making a credible argument. Ultimately, it is a certain feeling the project strives to inspire and sustain on a certain level, making more vital use of poetry and the arts; consequently whether one agrees or not is less important than whether one senses it and feels it over time.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

National Poetry Month: The Use of Poetry in the Revitalization of the Moral Culture

In regards to religion, the renowed mythologist Joseph Campbell describes the process of revitalization to Bill Moyers as follows, excerpted from The Power of Myth:

The world changes, the religions have to be transformed….It’s in the religions; all the religions are true – for their time. If you can find what the truth is and separate it from the temporal inflection, just be your same old religion into a new set of metaphors, and you’ve got it.

Yet in a pluralistic democratic society, the intent of this project is not in creating a new religion or directly revitalizing an old religion but in broadening the concept of poetry to revitalize the moral culture in general, inclusive of religion.

Note that Campbell makes use of the term metaphors. A metaphor is a poetic device, as is symbol, narrative, allegory, and parable, among others. But to make use of poetry, it has to be the truth -- as best we understand the truth to be given our limited vision -- and it has to inspire.

Here the old adage applies: man proposes, God disposes. As we attempt to draw on and make use of poetry to induce human inspiration, we are reliant on inspiration and whether it flows or not, taking us wherever it may lead us. If such a project fails to call to you, I am content to at least plant a seed should it germinate into something later. My sense is that we’re all like pieces of a greater puzzle and it may require some intermediate pieces before we can see or feel a true connection.