All
of these have poets have accepted the presence of poetic thought somewhere
beyond their own conscious. Indeed I have never known a poet who does
not get a little wistful when discussing these matters, and have never,
never, heard a poet brag, "Hey, I just make it up as I go, man."
So where do I come down on the topic? Are they reverse prayers or not?
Yes, they are reverse prayers. I think our souls entertain the stuff of the poem. I think the soul can intuit back to the conscious. I don't think these poems come bubbling up from the unconscious, as the more pragmatic of us would have it, but rather I can feel, or I can intuit, these little revelations emanate from the very soul, the soul who already has one foot planted solidly in death (a nod to Senor Loca) or, if you will, the afterlife. Of course, I would very much like to prove it . . . but I can't.
Instead, I will say this: even though I think the soul entertains the stuff of poetry, I do not, however, believe the process is metaphysical. Indeed, I think it will be found to be physical.
To paraphrase Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, we readily believe that our arms are in the physical world, that our skin and bones are physical, and that our very brain is physical, but we quickly balk at believing that our souls are physical. Most of us would say, "No, no, our souls must be ephemeral, wiffy, spiritual." But why? Perhaps our souls are physical, too. Who would say their consciousness is not a part of nature? To quote the good Jesuit directly: "To think we must eat." and "In the last analysis, somehow or other, there must be a single energy operating in the world. And the first idea that occurs to us is that the 'soul' must be as it were a focal point of transformation at which, from all points of nature, the forces of bodies converge, to become interiorised and sublimated in beauty and truth."
Throughout the past five thousand years of the written word, it is clear that as science progresses and explains more of the physical world, the metaphysical world has retreated from what it once termed concrete truths (for example, Adam and Eve) to more allegorical truths (the Big Bang was perhaps instigated by God).
Maybe science has not yet invented a strong enough microscope or telescope to discern the human soul. Yet I have a great faith in the future of science. And in the end I believe we will discover that it is indeed physical not metaphysical. Although I do not expect this to happen tomorrow, or for that matter, within the next hundred generations. In the meantime, I recommend reverse prayers to you. They're not quite as scientific as a microscope, but they're all the evidence we have right now.
So where do I come down on the topic? Are they reverse prayers or not?
Yes, they are reverse prayers. I think our souls entertain the stuff of the poem. I think the soul can intuit back to the conscious. I don't think these poems come bubbling up from the unconscious, as the more pragmatic of us would have it, but rather I can feel, or I can intuit, these little revelations emanate from the very soul, the soul who already has one foot planted solidly in death (a nod to Senor Loca) or, if you will, the afterlife. Of course, I would very much like to prove it . . . but I can't.
Instead, I will say this: even though I think the soul entertains the stuff of poetry, I do not, however, believe the process is metaphysical. Indeed, I think it will be found to be physical.
To paraphrase Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, we readily believe that our arms are in the physical world, that our skin and bones are physical, and that our very brain is physical, but we quickly balk at believing that our souls are physical. Most of us would say, "No, no, our souls must be ephemeral, wiffy, spiritual." But why? Perhaps our souls are physical, too. Who would say their consciousness is not a part of nature? To quote the good Jesuit directly: "To think we must eat." and "In the last analysis, somehow or other, there must be a single energy operating in the world. And the first idea that occurs to us is that the 'soul' must be as it were a focal point of transformation at which, from all points of nature, the forces of bodies converge, to become interiorised and sublimated in beauty and truth."
Throughout the past five thousand years of the written word, it is clear that as science progresses and explains more of the physical world, the metaphysical world has retreated from what it once termed concrete truths (for example, Adam and Eve) to more allegorical truths (the Big Bang was perhaps instigated by God).
Maybe science has not yet invented a strong enough microscope or telescope to discern the human soul. Yet I have a great faith in the future of science. And in the end I believe we will discover that it is indeed physical not metaphysical. Although I do not expect this to happen tomorrow, or for that matter, within the next hundred generations. In the meantime, I recommend reverse prayers to you. They're not quite as scientific as a microscope, but they're all the evidence we have right now.
