I write a lot of words in a day. Most of my compositions are objective and subjective observations about my patients, from what they tell me about their health to the measurement of things like oxygen saturation during exercise or the amount of sputum they expectorate after surgery. These words are hardly inspirational but are part of an important legal document. I was subpoenaed once to testify in court on behalf of a patient I had seen ten years earlier. The patient was dead, but the family had filed a lawsuit against the property owner of the apartment building where she lived. Lawsuits can take a lot of time to get through the court system and I did not remember the patient at all. She was one of many hundreds of hip fracture patients I have treated in my career. Thankfully the lawyer had obtained my charting record from an employer I no longer worked for. I was relieved to read my thorough assessment and treatment notes. Not all my charting has been as stellar but the court experience has made me more aware of the importance of good records with clear and easy-to-understand notations.
My good friend Lesley is a tenured university professor who has spent much time researching the life and works of Gerard Manley Hopkins, an English poet and Jesuit priest of the Victorian era. She speaks of Hopkins as if he is a well-known and loved family relation, so familiar is she with his writings. I uploaded a photo of a Belted Kingfisher in an earlier post this year and she responded by sending me a Hopkins poem called As Kingfishers Catch Fire. My methodical and literal intelligence was no match for the poet's brilliant and beautiful use of words and I was at a loss in deciphering the meaning of the poem. I felt like my Grade 7 self who disappointed her admired teacher, Mrs. Mummery when I failed to correctly analyze a sight poem that was on a midterm English exam. I remember her rebuke well when she told me she was surprised that I missed the poet's meaning.
Manley draws on themes of nature and spirituality as he describes how birds, dragonflies, stones and bells act in a way that is true to their nature. Likewise, man, when reflecting the nature of God is called to represent Christ to the world with beauty, justice and grace.
That is my very rudimentary understanding of a poem that should be studied in much greater depth. I would get no more than two marks on an exam for my explanation, but I no longer need to read poetry to please an English teacher. I have come to love this poem listening to it read on YouTube and reading and re-reading the lines. Eugene Peterson was so inspired by the poem that he published a series of his sermons in a book called, As Kingfishers Catch Fire: A Conversation on the Ways of God Formed by the Words of God. In his writing, he encourages Christians "to live lives of congruence. Put another way, that the inside matches the outside. Or as we used to hear, that we indeed practice what we preach".
In closing, here is the poem beautifully read by The Wordman who writes this on his profile.
"Reading a poem is like reading the score of a piece of music instead of listening to it when played! Ergo: POEMS SHOULD BE HEARD, NOT READ!!"
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