The Spiritual Power of Poetry

by

John G. Sutton

In my recent interview with best-selling author and philosopher Colin Wilson I asked him what he believed was the meaning of life. Colin replied that we each recognize our own reason for being during ‘Peak Experiences’ That is moments when we become wholly aware that this world is a brilliant and beautiful creation and we are a part of something very special. The problem is that 99.999% of the time we are not having peak experiences and are effectively drifting through life almost as if we were on automatic pilot. For example think of your early morning ritual, you go to the bathroom, wash, clean your teeth, dress, make a cup of tea or coffee, take breakfast and before you know it you are into the day and have barely registered anything that has happened to you. You didn’t actually think about any of the tasks you completed on the way to arriving at a state of readiness, those tasks were undertaken by the sub-conscious computer/mind which effectively controls your body. In this state you are a virtual automaton conducting pre-programmed tasks to prepare the body for….for what? Maybe for work, work that is perhaps mundane and is undertaken by the same automatic pilot that got you out of bed and ready for the task that it now completes using your body. The real you, the spiritual essence that is your soul, rests dormant within and, as a man said, time passes. Do you not think that it might be time to wake up and smell the flowers?

It is only on those rare occasions when our perception is heightened and we really see the truth and the glory that we do we truly become alive. Then we know that there is meaning to our existence and rejoice in the wonderful majesty of life, the universe and all that comprises the great mystery of being.  In this column I will be addressing the question; what triggers a peak experience and how can we gain access into mystical insights.  In other words how can we discover our own pathway to personal perception? How can we switch off our automatic pilot and assume control of the physical being that is the host of our eternal soul and thereby begin to enjoy life to the full? How can we have peak experiences and see that we are truly alive and not just going through the motions of living?

Consider this poem: 

WILD GEESE

 by 

Johnny Pottinger: 

They etched a scrawling signature

Against the sunset sky

Wild geese fighting down the wind

And calling as they fly

 Notes so wild and wanton

Stirs the soul's unrest

Haunted with such yearning

deep within my breast

 Take this message to my love

As you go flying by

Tell her someday I'll return

For with you I must fly

 Straggling skeins of wild geese

Silhouette the after-glow

Wild geese fighting down the wind

And calling as they go.

I recently discovered that poem in a book of Scottish verse given to me as a present 

by my dear wife Mary. I was sitting quietly in my office, completely at ease and 

relaxed then I turned the pages chancing upon the poem. And as I slowly read the first

 lines I began to experience a sense that I could ‘see’ those wild geese writing their

 scrawling signature across a far away sunset sky and I was moved by this inner vision. 

I am not alone in experiencing joy in poetic expression, in Colin Wilson’s erudite and 

illuminating book ‘Poetry & Mysticism’ he too reveals that poetry has, for himself and 

many others, a strange ability to concentrate the mind and enable it to ‘see’. Colin 

writes: ‘Mystical-poetic-experience is somehow very simple, like drawing aside a curtain,

 or turning on a light switch. But if you blunder into a completely dark room, you may 

feel the walls for hours before you find the switch. Turning on the light is simple only

 when you know where the switch is’. What Colin Wilson is saying is that it is possible 

for poetry to show us the metaphorical light switch allowing us to achieve mystical

insights, visions of the glory and the truth that surrounds us. In other words Colin

 believes, as indeed I do, that poetry can trigger insights offering us enlightenment.

 When I first read the poem Wild Geese, for a brief moment in time, I actually 

experienced the joy of ‘seeing’ the scene and sensing the splendor of that distant sky.

 In that moment I was transported to another level of awareness, the robot that had been

 controlling me was disengaged and the real ‘me’ experienced delight in just being alive.

The poet W.B. Yeats was sitting in a London teashop when he had a peak experience. 

Yeats wrote about this: ‘My fiftieth year had come and gone/I sat, a solitary man/

In a crowded London shop/An open book and empty cup/On the marble table-top/

While on the shop and street I gazed/My body of a sudden blazed/And twenty minutes more 

or less/It seemed so great my happiness/That I was blessed and could bless.’ 

It was in that instance not poetry that produced the euphoria but the simple sense of 

rightness, that all was as it should be, occurring in Yeats’ mind. Yet in a way it was 

poetry, because Yeats was a poet he thought poetically and ultimately he translated

 his mystical insight into poetry.

We can all enjoy mystical, poetical, peak experiences if we do but learn how to find 

the switch that will illuminate our darkness and shine the light of truth and joy too

 brightly for the robot controller to maintain command of us. Poetry may move us to

 ‘see’ beyond the mundane level of everyday existence that we laughingly call life. 

For how can the automatic pilot function when faced with the unknown that lies within

 the verses created by an inspired poet. It is that shock, that sudden, mystical-insight

 which turns off the robot and makes us waken and glory in the wonder that really is our 

life. Perhaps we may even catch a brief glimpse of the meaning behind our creation and

 rejoice in the absurd good news that we are who we are. 

In this short column I have attempted to address the ability of poetry to enable us to

 ‘see’ beyond the prison house that surrounds us as socialized adults in a material

 world. If you would like to explore this idea further then I recommend that you read 

‘Poetry & Mysticism’ by Colin Wilson published by City Lights and available on the

 internet at Amazon.co.uk

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