(upbeat music) - Okay, Pastor John, here's a question from Eric in Iowa City, and I think you're gonna really like Eric's question. He asks, quote, "I have seen the power of poetry "to express ideas and feelings. "I'm convinced that writing poetry would be good "for my own soul, my family, and those I serve in ministry.

"The problem is, I've never taken a course in school "on writing poetry. "My question is, how do you begin "and what books do you recommend?" End quote, what do you say, Pastor John? - Oh, I love that question. I love the heart that wants to grow in the crafting of language so that it serves God as fully as it possibly can.

Let me start by saying, there are all levels and kinds of poetry, from the most refined and careful and thoughtful and ingenious and deep, and the simplest, most homey, takes a heap of living to make a house a home kind of poetry from Edgar Guest. I grew up in a home where my dad read poetry to us, and it was always of the simplest kind, and I think that's what families need.

Families don't need really obscure poetry. Families need birthday poems and anniversary poems and Christmas poems and Thanksgiving poems where dad or mom or children just write something sweet and beautiful from their hearts for God and shouldn't worry too much about any criticism that it's gonna receive because it's artistic quality.

But there is a whole history of great poetry that moves you along and takes you deeper into the way language is used. And here's a couple of pointers. There are two books I'd recommend. One is Ted Koozer. He was the Poet Laureate of America about five or six years ago.

Ted Koozer, K-O-O-S-E-R, The Poetry Home Repair Manual, a poetry handbook, The Poetry Home Repair Manual, Practical Advice for Beginning Poets, and then Mary Oliver, a poetry handbook. So those are two books that are written precisely to answer Eric's question about how do you just get started? A third thing, I mean, a second thing I'd say besides reading those books would be take a class at a community college or colleges.

Take a class on poetry and surprise yourself by getting back into school. I would say, here's something really practical everybody can do. Memorize some psalms. Memorize psalms. Because when you memorize, you start to get a feel for language. You can say them over and over again to yourself and try different ways of reciting the psalms so that they have the kind of symmetrical parallelism and ring that they ought to have.

And I would say that about other poems as well. I remember sitting in the class in Romantic Poetry with Clyde Kilby, and he read a poem to us by John Keats. And I can't remember the name of it right now, but he said, "I promise you, if you memorize this poem, "it will serve you to enlarge your soul in 50 years." And it was just the sheer memorizing of a beautiful poem that made the difference.

But here's the most important thing. If a person wants to grow in his ability to write poetry that's not just rose, the red, violet, or blue, I try to write poetry, so do you. If they wanna grow beyond something, into something richer and deeper, read poetry. Just read it.

Get, a book would be "The Sacrifice of Praise," an anthology of Christian poetry by James Trott, T-R-O-T-T, "The Sacrifice of Praise." Or on the memory thing, there's a book called "Committed to Memory," "The 100 Best Poems to Memorize," by John Hollander. So, but mainly, just go to Barnes & Noble, go to the poetry shelf, pull down some anthology, and start reading poetry.

'Cause what'll happen is, when you read great poetry, you start to catch a feel of what makes it great. - Excellent, that's a good place to start for the beginning poet. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast. Send your poetry questions to Pastor John via email at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

Please include your first name and your hometown. You can find thousands of other free resources from John Piper online at desiringgod.org, including his poetry. I'm your host, Tony Reinke, thanks for listening. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)