Today's C.S. Lewis quote is a little tongue-in-cheek:
Perhaps the solution is just never to let anyone see my poetry, or at least until it is decent.
I think, however, that we limit ourselves and God by refusing to take risks out of fear of rejection or failure -- out of fear of writing, "bad poetry."
This brings up, however, C.S. Lewis's true intent when he wrote the above quote. We never intend bad consequences, e.g. bad poetry. We do things because we think that it is good or better than not doing them. When we ignore our conscience, it is because, for some warped reason deep in our soul, we think that ignoring our conscience will result in "good poetry." We make a choice, therefore, to ignore our conscience, and end up with bad poetry, even though we did not intend to create bad poetry.
Another way of saying this is that, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."
So write poetry in life and develop your skills so that you will eventually write good poetry. But know that if your conscience is telling you not to write poetry and you do it anyway, the poetry you write will always be bad poetry.
Disobedience to conscience is voluntary; bad poetry, on the other hand, is usually not made on purpose.I do not write poetry, because I am fairly certain that my poetry would be poor, even when I do not intend it to be bad. However, this is an important subject. When one begins to attempt to develop in an area, they tend to be bad when they first start. For example, I am certain that I am a bad poet, at least given my current abilities. Should I then never embark on becoming a good poet?
Perhaps the solution is just never to let anyone see my poetry, or at least until it is decent.
I think, however, that we limit ourselves and God by refusing to take risks out of fear of rejection or failure -- out of fear of writing, "bad poetry."
This brings up, however, C.S. Lewis's true intent when he wrote the above quote. We never intend bad consequences, e.g. bad poetry. We do things because we think that it is good or better than not doing them. When we ignore our conscience, it is because, for some warped reason deep in our soul, we think that ignoring our conscience will result in "good poetry." We make a choice, therefore, to ignore our conscience, and end up with bad poetry, even though we did not intend to create bad poetry.
Another way of saying this is that, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."
So write poetry in life and develop your skills so that you will eventually write good poetry. But know that if your conscience is telling you not to write poetry and you do it anyway, the poetry you write will always be bad poetry.
Roses are red,
ReplyDeleteViolets are blue,
Bad poetry stinks,
And that is so TRUE!!!
Good one!!! :)
ReplyDeleteDid your conscience tell you not to write that poem?
ReplyDelete