Bible: 5 Poetic Books

Lesson 1: Backgrounder

The Book of Job: Backgrounder

Murder. Suicide. Death. Disease. Destruction. Have you ever noticed how much modern poetry is downright depressing? As a poet, I must admit that I’m guilty of this bantering as well…

Poets put pen to paper to deal with issues they need to get out of their head. In our modern world of free verse poetry (about 90% of what’s published today is free verse, and growing by the minute), it is the images that count, and not so much the art of conforming to a form, like a sonnet, with rhythm, rhyme, meter, and specific line counts and patterns. Building structure, to a large degree, has been replaced instead by concentrating on creating images that stick to the brain. Images that can’t be released easily.

My wife tells me that she has a foolproof system for telling whether a poem of mine will sell or do well. If she hates it, it’ll make money…

Her system works. My poem “Homeless” won the Roux Press Poetry Prize, “Photo Box: Accidents Waiting to Happen” (about overcoming alcohol abuse) was published in Cranberry Press’ Tea for Three chapbook, and recent published poems of mine include “Seaside Cemetery” (images of water lapping away at the land, washing away the bodies), and “Winter Storm” (about a suicide).

It seems we love to read about tragic lives and terrible situations so that our own lives seem better. Newspapers, magazines, tabloids and reality shows understand this concept. They don’t just report on tragedy, they incite it, blowing it up, making mountains out of molehills, creating conflict where there was none before. Somehow, our own little world seems just a little bit better if we can find someone whose life is just a bit more tragic than our own.

This is nothing new.

The book of Job outlines tragedy after tragedy that occurs in the life of a righteous man.

Job had it all--wealth, family, and a close relationship with God. In this book of the Bible, we'll see how he lost it all--really through no fault of his own--and we'll get some inspiration for writing about those tough spots in our own lives...or those we know about. Poetry, and writing in general, can be good therapy—especially for those times when we feel that no one is truly listening to us. Job understands …

The main part of this book shows how others react to Job's plight. Three of his friends come to console him, but as we'll see in this section, they aren't much help. It seems that they even may enjoy being able to lecture Job on how he should or should not act. Pride sets in, they try to teach Job a lesson, and end up learning a lesson themselves, taught by the Master Teacher. Sometimes when we “think we know better”, we need to take a step back and ask God what He thinks.

Besides listening over and over again to the sermons of Job’s misguided friends, we'll also see how two wiser beings respond, and discover that even in tragedy, there are lessons to be learned. Lessons about friendship. Lessons about listening to God.

If this sounds like the section you'd like to jump into, then continue on to lesson two, and get ready to deal with some heavy issues...

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