Poetry Creates the World Anew

“A poem
is words turned upside down
and suddenly!
the world is new.”

From This Is a Poem that Heals Fish

 At our youth gathering on Palm Sunday, I was wondering how to talk with youth about the resurrection as something multi-layered. I often think we are able to say the words, “Christ is Risen!” without really engaging with the fullness of what that means in our own lives. Each time we encounter the greatest and most mysterious story of our faith, it strikes us in a new way. Poetry has this way of transforming often-heard words into insightful, fresh phrases that invite us to sit with wonder.

Black out poetry is a way to extract new meaning from an existing piece of writing. Using an article or longer passage, the poem is made by crossing out words with a marker. The words that remain become a poem of…