In "The Essence of Poetry," Sri Aurobindo reflects on the true source and nature of the poetic delight, stating that the soul is the true creator and recipient of this deeper joy.
...neither the intelligence, the imagination nor the ear are the true or at least the deepest or highest recipients of the poetic delight, even as they are not its true or highest creators; they are only its channels and instruments: the true creator, the true hearer is the soul...Therefore poetry has not really done its work, at least its highest work, until it has raised the pleasure of the instrument and transmuted it into the deeper delight of the soul... This delight is not merely a godlike pastime; it is a great formative and illuminative power.
Even without examining contemporary poetry1 through the lens of spiritual joy or inspiration, one notices a dominant tendency of production over creation. Reading a specific published poem, it looks like its mass production is possible, mirroring a specific craft coding. It tastes like polished grain with the nutrients washed out. The texture is polyester, not the soothing touch of cotton. Its feels chained to a fixed notion of expression of realism, ending up serving simplicity as rather blandness.
Perhaps, by giving the reins to the soul, the lost space can be restored to poetry. Or perhaps no one can seize its power from poetry-- silver linings do exist, not in full-fledged incandescence but as beams. The time is ripe, then, for an invocation of poetry to spring forth its deeper forms. But this calls for a recognition--by those who care--that a poetic resurrection is imperative.
- This statement does not intend to proclaim traditional or past poetry as a whole fitting into a special category. Nor does it summarily judge the current poetry as devoid of a spiritual connection. ↩︎