These days, when people are having all the possible concerns about the poetry and its decline, there are the poets who are optimistic and enthusiastic. These poets see poetry as the most soothing form of art. One poet of this class, George Swede, is from Canada. I had the fortunate chance to exchange ideas with him. A frequent interviewer of authors and poets, I don’t miss a single chance to direct my questions to them. I asked my questions to George Swede as well. I asked him about his early interest in poetry, his language, his psychology and many other things. Remarkably a popular expert at Haikus, Swede answered all my questions very smartly. Moreover, I also had a chance to understand the relation between human life, poetry, and psychology.
Upon asking about the importance of poetry in human life, George Swede told that poetry provides us the liberty of imagination. We can return to the state of childhood when we are free of conventional ways of thinking about the things. He said:
“Speech is our most complex form of communication and speaking in metaphors is our most basic form of artistic expression, needing no tools other than the tongue. Before starting school, we connect seemingly unrelated ideas in illuminating ways—we are natural poets. However, after entering the educational system, we begin to see the world in more conventional ways as we learn our culture’s systems of thought.”
Adding more to his thoughts, he had to say:
“Reading and writing poetry returns us to the way we were before the scriptures of schooling. We become free again to imagine.”
These words, coming from a poet who is very popular, surely establish the importance of poetry – the written form of art. Not only that, Swede also emphasizes that reading and appreciating poetry can also raise our spirit. It’s a transportation from the boredom to the freedom, not only for the poet who writes it but also for the reader who reads it.
George Swede is a poet based in Canada. He has authored more than 50 books out of which, 37 are his poetry collections. He is also a clinical psychologist as well as a well-known children author. He is one of the founder members of Haiku Canada, founded in 1977.
Read the complete interview: George Swede
