Poetry probably saved my life!
Poetry… words, as a spiritual practice, deepened my experience of God and helped me navigate one of the most challenging times of my life. The poetry in John’s Gospel also helped me during that time of crisis and my existential struggle for identity. John is the most poetic and metaphorical account of Jesus’s life. It opens with, “In the beginning was the word…” John proposed that words had creative energy since they were present in the form of Christ at the dawn of the universe. Now, I didn’t travel to the moment after the big bang, but words did enable me to create a new spiritual world filled with hope and optimism.
Words summoned feelings that I repressed from traumatic incidents. I’m a combat veteran and a retired military officer. I never realized the toll combat took on me until my world shifted in an instant. Everything fell apart, and I stood in the wake of disaster wondering who I was without a career and friendships to define me.
Then, I told myself, “Rian Adams, be who you are, that is the greatest privilege you will ever have.”
It’s often the hard moments, the moments when God seems so distant or even nonexistent, that we trip over the divine. For my healing to occur I needed the necessary bravery to confront the struggles of the soul. That’s when poetry gave me a vocabulary of metaphors to express the soul’s journey. So, I wrote of the joy and difficulties of love, the wounds, and fears of war, and the growth of the soul.
God helps those who help themselves.
Now I write a short poem as part of my meditation and spiritual reflection on most mornings. It isn’t always easy to carve out time, but soul care is an important part of overall well being. After my world fell apart, the discipline of words helped me encounter my fears and my frailties.
I found the will to pick myself up from the pessimism of passive acceptance to find a renewed vocation rooted in freedom and love. This site shares the history behind some of my poems, and it catalogs the spiritual journey. I write poetry because it enlarges my soul, not for any monetary gain. Most poets, even the great ones, died poor. Thankfully, I have a canon camera along for the ride.
Poetry is a condition; it’s certainly not a livelihood.
I find it easier to connect to my words when I write using a traditional typewriter. There is a uniqueness to manual keys that require pressure before ink transfers to paper. Life is like that. When I feel pressure, I know something marvelous will soon appear if I allow God to type a story of hope and redemption on the pages of my heart. Most of the poems in Love, War, and Soul, originated on this typewriter.
Words can, and often do, point people to God. Sometimes putting words to feelings seems unsafe, but when we are honest with ourselves about the needs of our souls, we can welcome the pressure of the typewriter as our story continues to unfold. In the beginning, was the word…
All the best,