Why Should I Write Poetry? Poem by Denis Martindale

If you only knew the treasure chest that awaited you.
If only you could fall under the spell of all those shining gemstones
and gaze upon the silver and the gold.

If only you could savour the joy that is stored ahead of you,
just dangling in front of your heart and soul…
and your eyes as you were reading each special syllable.

The mother tongue never looked so beautiful
as when the spirit is moved upon the deadness of a single page.
The pen has never seemed so precious
as when writing the thoughts that the soul imparts.

Nor can you dismiss the Lord God sharing His words along the way.
Ask the Old Testament prophets
why they wrote the psalms and the prophecies.
They will ask you why you haven't made a start already.
What's wrong with you? Why do you delay?
Then they will commend poetry to you
and recite what God helped them to share.
The old men will smile, the young men will smile.
Little children will ask for the meanings,
the kings will reason what could be meant beyond the meanings.

For poetry is that powerful that it has built kingdoms,
why then do you ask, Why should I write poetry?
It is not a duty, it is a beauty… Cherish the beauty.
Pray for it to blossom like the rose.
Pray for it to speak to the nations and future generations.
For without poetry the songs are devoid of wisdom, humour, love.
Hopes and dreams go unspoken, unwritten.

Publishers of anthologies invest their all in the hopes of blessing Mankind.
They may not welcome every poem that we write,
but that merely spurs us on to write better poems,
poems that they cannot dismiss.
For something magical will capture them
and spur them on to share what they felt at that time of reading.
Something powerful. Something wonderful.
Something that even I gave years of my youth to write and to share.
Now, the older man, I still share.

Even this morning, one of my poems, written suddenly,
was shared on Revelation TV.
Perhaps hundreds and thousands heard those words.
Perhaps lives were changed for the better. That was the intent.
Not to keep the blessing just as mine alone,
but to reach out to others through poetry,
the basic rhyming of words,
yet compressed hopes and dreams fitting together like a jigsaw,
for the big picture to be known and loved, just for what it is,
a truthful token of a gentle and a godly appreciation
in an ever-changing world of emotions, just a snapshot,
that retains a message meant for one and all.

Perhaps you could better phrase the words,
the lines and even the concluding lines.
Should that day or night ever come, let me know…
because I want to know…
because I love poetry…


Denis Martindale Sunday 22 October 2017.


GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU BLESS GOD!
DO SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR HIM...


Find out more by watching Revelation TV,
the Christian channel on UK Sky TV 581.