Poetry: Deep or Shallow?

Often, I write in prose form. It started, I think, with a love for music and a desire to write songs of my own. Ironically, very few of my poems become songs. When writing a song, I usually start strumming a chord progression on the guitar, then add the lyrics later. Most of the songs I write are praise songs to Jesus. When writing poetry, though, I start with a blank sheet of paper and think of words, phrases, and ideas that go well together – hopefully sticking to a common theme. Those themes are generally more about relationships, people, joy and sorrow. They are not always void of specific references to God by name, but if I write a poem about a girl, you might not see Jesus' name in it; I hope that the message would still point to his good, holy, just and redeeming characteristics.

So, is poetry deep or shallow? Or, at times, both, or neither? If the same message can be expressed in fewer words, is the shorter version better? If, in an attempt to shorten a message for the sake of time, style, or attention, one omits a vital piece of the message, then the shorter version is certainly worse, if not counteractive. On the other hand, not all poetry simply shortens a broader idea either. Often times, the art form takes on a simple theme, or even just a single word, and, through descriptive terms and alternative angles, portrays that message in a new, perhaps exciting, and hopefully accurate way. I think the Psalms of the Bible provide great examples of poetry both rightly and expressively shortening aspects of God and his glory (see Psalm 100), and descriptively and accurately lengthening our ideas about his love, mercy, wrath, and the relationship between God and man (see Psalm 104).

But I still do not think I have adequately answered the question. Short does not necessarily mean shallow; long does not mean deep. It will be difficult to take on poetry as a whole. It would be similar to taking on painting as an art form to determine whether expressionism is genuine enough, or the classics are expressive enough. Or music – is Rock & Roll too simple? Is Jazz too complicated? I am reluctant to answer the question with “it depends”, but I think it is inevitable. One cannot simply state that most poetry is too shallow or too deep. I could say that most of what I have read is shallow, if it were true. I could say that most of what I have written was intended to be deep, but I would assume that most poets would say the same about their work. If one starts out with the goal of writing shallow, thoughtless poetry, then their audience will most likely be described in the same way. Sometimes, poetry can even seem simple at first, but the reader might interpret something much deeper. The individual experiences of each reader, or hearer, bears much weight on the depth of the message. If I write “She wore a white dress / Her blue eyes gave way to her blue heart”, a third-grader might simply see a bride on her wedding day, but a divorcee on her would-be anniversary might also see a woman who was filled with sorrow and apprehension. Some might say that that is reading too much into it. I will leave it open to interpretation.