Editorial: Poetry & Prayer
I am not built for unprecedented times. Not many of us are giddy at the idea of a collapsing democracy or rising cultural tensions. But sometimes I fall into frantic anxiety. The usual platitudes about how it’s all in God’s plan and how we are living in the end times don’t provide comfort; they only remind me that not only is my future uncertain, but that I have insufficient faith.
In times like this, faith feels fragile. God has provided an unconventional remedy: poetry. Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney wrote in Part XI of his twelve-part poem “Staten Island” to “read poems as prayers.” Within the poem, the advice is given to him by a monk, yet the purpose is not to imply all poems are meant to be prayers but to bridge the gap between art and reality, holy scripture and creative expression.
What are the Psalms if not a collection of poetry? Art has always had a way of communicating the hope and nuance of gritty reality in a way that allows us to digest it. In the Psalms, David plumbs the depths of political corruption, oppression, grief, and hopelessness. His anxiety and pain are evident—yet they are poured out to a God who listens, ever acknowledging that the God who listens is also a God who answers. Paul, too, implies the value of poetry as prayer when he reminds us in Romans 8:26 that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
As image bearers of God, we His creation emulate our creator when we make and appreciate art, recognizing it as a tool to help process the frustration of a sinful world. Both secular and sacred poets have followed a scriptural model when it comes to using poetry as a means to communicate, allowing us as readers to anchor ourselves in an ever-shifting world. In following a Romans 8:26-27 model, reading scripture as poetry and poems as prayers may be the anchoring force we need.
Perhaps in the comments you can share some of the passages of poetry that speak to the yearnings of your heart!
Nicole Brown-Dominguez
Adventist Today News Editor
15 March 2025
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