Praying with Poetry

quill pen and inkExplore Faith suggests a process for praying with poetry. Several poems are on the site, but the method will work with any poem. Here’s the process next to “Otherwise,” by Jane Kenyon.

One of the steps suggests journaling responses to various prompts, including “If I were to paint a picture about this poem I would include [in] my work of art”¦”

Have you ever prayed with poetry or works of art? What has been your experience with these forms of prayer?

3 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve written a few verses myself and I find that they are are simply expressions of my faith, my love, my disappointments, my struggles, my dreams lifted up to a loving God who’s always there with a listening heart.

  2. I agree. As a frustrated “meditator”, I found putting it in art as a medium I best relate to ( without those twinges of conscience). I know that what I put down is hardly art, yet it keeps me focused for the moment – something like working on an icon.

  3. I saw the tweet: Have you ever tried praying with poetry?@loyolapress.
    My experience with a similar approach is the Lectio Divina, reading a scripture passage and then contemplating on it, a version similar to the article could be with the psalms. And praying for saints intercession in front of icons or paintings is also a related approach many have practiced.
    Yet, the article takes poetry praying several steps further in a unique kind of way. The “meditate with poetry” portion of the ExploreFaith.org site is of interest to me. I will give this method a try.

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