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Good morning.  Today is world poetry day, so I refuse point blank to quote any poetry.  To do so is not to be wilfully contentious, nor ‘occard’ as my father would have put it.  Rather, it is to make a point.  The word ‘poetry’ comes from the greek verb ‘poieo’ – to make.  I see the poet as being rather like a sculptor who creates works of art from scrap metal.  Like the sculptor, a poet takes the materials he or she finds to hand, heats them up in the forge of the mind, and then bends them intro new and interesting shapes.  The very best poetry makes us not only look differently at the shape itself – but at the scrapyard from which it was made.
As a Christian minister the prophets of the Old Testament have become familiar friends over the years.  I have grown to appreciate their sweeping vision, uncomfortable insight and perception.  To me the most interesting thing is this, though...  Very few of them were saying anything truly new.  Rather, they were taking old familiar truths and twisting them into shapes new enough to make people notice – a bit like our scrapyard sculptor.
It is also as a Christian minister that I must hang my head a little on world poetry day.  You see, poetry has often been exiled from the pulpit.  We have replaced it with dry statement, dull lecturing – or sometimes with gaudy digital images.  We sometimes fear the very ambiguity which makes it great, and our sermons are poorer because of it. Come back, poetry – all is forgiven!
Dear God, on this world poetry today, we thank you for those who take old familiar words and twist them into new verbal sculptures. Help us to make the very best use of language today too. Amen