When We Lose Metaphor

When We Lose Metaphor


1.
When we lose metaphor, we lose our capability to dream ourselves and our descendants into beauty.

There is everyday language, and the language used to speak of that which is sacred. In our indigenous languages even the everyday was metaphorical.

We need poetry in all of its aspects.

May Sarton said: "Poetry exists to break through to below the level of reason where the angels and monsters that the amenities keep in the cellar may come out to dance, to rove and roar, growling and singing, to bring life back to the enclosed rooms where too often we are only 'living and partly living'."

2.
When we lose metaphor,
we lose our capability
to dream ourselves
and our descendants into beauty.

There is everyday language,
and the language used to speak of
that which is sacred.
In our indigenous languages
even the everyday was metaphorical.

We need poetry in all of its aspects.

May Sarton said:
"Poetry exists to break through
to below the level of reason
where the angels and monsters
that the amenities keep in the cellar
may come out to dance,
to rove and roar,
growling and singing,
to bring life back to the enclosed rooms
where too often we are only
'living and partly living'."

Joy Harjo

Posted on her site Joy Harjo's Poetic Adventues In The Last World Blog
1. Joy's prose from her comment.
2. Line breaks by Glenn Buttkus