The Way of Poetry

The connection between poetry and contemplation has been highlighted on many accounts and in many ways, so much so that it has become a sort of truism. The idea of poetic contemplation covers a wide spectrum of phenomena, and while all genuine poetry is in a sense "contemplative," it does not follow that the discipline of contemplate practice necessarily enters into the alchemy of poetic creation; hence the need to specify the scope of our understanding of contemplation.