The Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan

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Poetry is the dance of the soul; and when from a poet's heart an inspiration wells up and he writes it down, even his prose will be poetry. But it is difficult for a writer of prose to write poetry, for it is not his line. Life has become so mechanical for us. We are thrown into this struggle of life from morning till evening; everywhere we turn we are caught up in a certain mechanism; and the depth of life, the high imagination, the lofty ideal, all seem to be missing. It is because of our everyday life. Under such conditions, what happens is that those who are really talented and worthy of praise are not noticed; only those who succeed in making an appeal to the most ordinary mentality are well known. No doubt this will not last and a change will come; but it can only come when the readers of poetry change. It seems that general education conceals the beauty of the art of poetry, because education is principally given for commercial purposes: to fit a man to protect his own interests in his worldly struggles. How can such a man appreciate poetry? And it is not only so in the West; in the East it is still worse. Poets have died of hunger for many, many years. Very few Rajas today have any appreciation of poetry, and the general public is not developed enough to appreciate it; therefore a good poet must die of hunger and only those who can make an appeal to the general public are successful.


 
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