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Hey @dakota and @sparrowhawke , again, thanks for continuing the conversation here.

 

Dakota, I think you’re onto something there. By no means do we want to condone or encourage the kinds of dark things in our lives or the lives of our characters. But at the same time, what will the light be triumphant over if we glaze over the darkness or pretend it isn’t really there? It’s like those movies or books where you have a really weak, one-dimensional villain and it makes the hero seem weak by contrast, no matter how strong or courageous the hero actually is. Do you have any ideas for how to walk that line?

 

And Bethany, no, I haven’t read any of Cowper’s poetry. I’ll have to look into it. And congrats on your The Scarlet Letter project! I hope you’re able to get it to the place you want it to be. I’ve heard the same thing about finding poetry boring from college students when I do poetry readings. They were forced to figure out all the rules behind poetry and then they were told to go and find out what it all means before they were allowed to just enjoy it. Imagine if we applied that same logic to other art forms. That’s why one of Billy Collins’ poem, “Introduction to Poetry,” will forever be one of my favorites to bring up in conversation:

 

“I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

 

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

 

They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.” – Billy Collins (“Introduction to Poetry”)

 

I used to be solidly in the “if it doesn’t rhyme, it’s not poetry” camp until I had a humbling experience with a professional poet who wrote almost exclusively free verse. Now I enjoy good verse poetry every now and then, but I tend to lean toward the ones that make it look and feel effortless, like W. B. Yeats, Robert Frost, Wilfred Owen, etc. Some of their poems are written in everyday language, and sometimes you don’t notice that it rhymes unless you’re really paying attention. In fact, I think Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” is a great example of a poet who isn’t afraid to dig deep into the gritty details of WWI, yet still manages to follow a rhyme scheme. The rhyming reinforces the poem rather than making it feel awkward or forced. It feels raw and real, but it doesn’t glory in the gore. Quite the opposite, it warns against trying to glory in the gore of war.

 

And I’ve heard songs (Christian songs, even) that dig deep into the specific realities of the dark world we live in that don’t come across as “preachy,” detached, or indulgent. They’re somehow able to come across as authentic and compassionate even in the midst of some really messed up stuff that’s going on in the world. Most of the ones I can think of that get really specific though are older, like 1990s and early 2000s old. And a lot of what I hear on Christian radio today is more feel-good worship music or vague “going through a struggle, but I remember God’s got this so it’s all good” music (which totally has its place, don’t get me wrong). It’s just that I wish there was more depth there. You know what I mean?