It Must Be Said - July 25 2022

It Must Be Said

July 25 2022

I am not a believer.

Still, there is no denying

that the King James Bible

falls beautifully on the ear.

Some of the words may be arcane,

but its gravitas, mastery, language

are pure poetry.

If the translators took liberties

I can only thank them for it,

honouring their God

by serving beauty over pedantry.

Extreme words like evil,

that to me

sound over-wrought.

As if the world was black and white.

As if the human heart could be

so irredeemably dark.

Or used to sound that way

but no longer does.

Perhaps my mistake

is reading the news

every day

for more decades than I care to mention.

Too many wars

and too much oppression,

even more

short-sighted greed.

No end

of psychopaths and sadists

and predatory men,

and who knew

we'd be witness to genocide

again and again.

So, is evil arcane?

Too extreme

for modern sensibilities?

A word more suited

to the olden days

and Bible times

when the world was a crueller place?

When the Holy Book spoke

in the commanding voice

of judgement and thunder?

If only evil were.

I am wary

of debasing words

through hyperbole and over-use.

Not to mention that restraint

makes the best poetry.

But evil is with us every day

and it must be said.

If only I believed.

If only prayer could help.

If only the divine

could save us from ourselves.

This is what I wrote (in italics below) to my first reader when I sent him the first draft.

I'm including it because I'm still very pleased with this one.

And because I think it's a good example of the attributes I think make a good poem.

Which are certainly not the same for everyone. Or probably most other people. I read a lot of poetry, and long ago recognized that my style is hardly definitive, and I'm sure not to everyone's taste. So my definition of a successful poem might strike others as highly questionable! Nevertheless, I think what counts as success is to achieve what you set out to do, irrespective of some presumed standard.

I know it's a mistake to oversell before you can form your own impression, but (so far) I really love this one. For what it says. For its voice, which I think is very conversational and accessible. And for its first-person authenticity, which I think helps give it a very affecting — almost confessional — intimacy.