Poetry allows the knowing of the imagination and reminds us that the rational alone will not take us to full knowledge. Poetry changes fundamentally our relationship to language as merely a serviceable vehicle. Poetry gives us an inherent sense of structure in a piece of formal writing (or even informal, like a letter). Poetry reminds us that the metaphor is the basic way of knowing the unknown and that we often discribe one thing in terms of another. Poetry gives us images to cherish and to invigorate our daily experience.
Christine Perrin
Christine Perrin has taught literature and creative writing at Johns Hopkins University, Messiah College, Gordon College’s Orvieto Program, through the Pennsylvania Arts Council to students of all ages, and at the local classical school where her husband was headmaster for a decade and where her children a ended K-12. She consults with classical schools in curriculum development and faculty development in poetry. She is a two time recipient of the PA Arts Council Artists Fellowship and a Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference Fellowship. Her own work appears in various journals including The New England Review, Image, TriQuarterly, Blackbird, and Christianity and Literature, The Cresset. “The Art of Poetry” a text book for middle to high school students was published in 2009 by Classical Academic Press. She attended Johns Hopkins as an undergraduate and the University of Maryland for graduate school. She keeps a blog at: h p://blog.classicalacademicpress.com/poetry