Poetic License

“To be a poet is a condition, not a profession” - Robert Frost

I watched both Dr. Zhivago and Man of LaMancha within the past week. Dr. Zhivago, I’ve watched too many times to count, but this was the first time I saw Man of La Mancha. I had heard of Don Quixote, knew he fought windmills, and was well aware of “The Impossible Dream,” one of the main songs from the musical, but I didn’t know the plot of the story. Cervantes is jailed during the Inquisition for the crime of being a poet and uses his talents as a storyteller to win over the other inmates and save his manuscript. Dr. Zhivago is closely watched by his government because of the poems he writes, and I had to question, what makes a poet so dangerous? Both men arrested for subversion of words next to words, not swords next to swords. The Frost quote explains the threat of the poet, not that one makes a living as a poet, but that one thinks like a poet at all. There are some experiences in which poetry is the involuntary response – love, beauty, and grace. A poet sees the world with new eyes and writes to capture the moment.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, You are the author of life. You fill our days with prose and song and fill our minds with promises and possibilities. When we are most finely tuned to your presence, we are engulfed by emotion and strength. Let us see as a poet, and consider the world anew.

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star